NA Beer: Deschutes Black Butte

A tulip-shaped beer glass and a beer can sit on a windowsill. The glass is completely full of a deep brown, almost black liquid, with just a hint of light brown foam on top. The beer can next to it is beige and orange, with black accents. It shows a mountain covered with pine trees, and is labeled "Deschutes Black Butte Non-Alcoholic."

I’ve been drinking exclusively NA beer for three months now, and this porter from Deschutes Brewing is the best I’ve encountered thus far. It has just about everything I want in a porter: dark, complex flavor, but still somehow crisp and clean. It still lacks the mouthfeel alcohol brings to a really good porter (my favorites are the Lock 9 Porter from local brewer Wolf Hollow, and Great Lakes Brewing’s Edmund Fitzgerald), but the rest of the elements are there.

It has a dark flavor, with notes of coffee, with just a subtle amount of malty sweetness. It finishes cleanly. I would order this beer over any number of decent regular porters.

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