Rivertown Brewing Company – Roebling Porter – This beer helped me drown my sorrows when Kevin Smith missed his flight from LA to my fine city of Columbus. We still had Jason Mewes and “Comic Book Men” co-host Ming Chen for the “Jay & Silent Bob’s Super Groovy Cartoon Movie!” which if you can read the ticket was back on June 7th. Cleaning out the summer beer catalog pushed this one back even further than it should have. To the beer, it was mighty fine. Like most porters, it has a combination of vanilla, coffee and chocolate in it. As usual, I had a hard time detecting the chocolate. The vanilla was more in the background than some of the porters like the one from Atwater but it was still there. Unlike Atwater, it was pretty thick. I’d call it as close to a stout as you can get. This company is out of Cincinnati so if you live in Ohio, Kentucky or Indiana, you’re in luck if you follow this link.

Barley’s Brewing Company – Beyond Darkness Stout – I know this beer comes from Barley’s Smokehouse & Brewpub but they aren’t claiming that it’s theirs. They also don’t have it on the menu for Studio 35 where we saw the event. That’s a little strange since I liked this one even more than the porter above. It had that thickness, the “I just finished a milkshake thickness to it” which is always fantastic. Unlike other stouts recently that I’ve had like New Holland Dragon’s Milk or Left Hand Brewing’s Nitro Milk Stout, there’s no sweetener in this stout. Straight up Guinness like blackness which is another kind of fantastic from those other two excellent stouts.

J.W. Dundee Brewing Company – Stout – Jeremy & I may have partaken in a few Dundee Honey Brown’s back when we were at Kent State. At the time, I had no idea they had more offerings. Like the Beyond Darkness Stout, this one is a no frills straight up stout. A dash of coffee and the no flavor having chocolate combine for a delightful stout. It’s not as thick as BDS but was closer to the Roebling Porter. This beer is brewed in Rochester, NY but I got it here. Their distribution page is pretty cool in that you can type in your city and find any type of venue that will have Dundee products. Take a look and see if you can find it in your area.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto recently recommended his six favorite Japanese beers to Men’s Health. Unfortunately, I’ve only gotten to try one of these beers. Even the very traditional Japanese place around the bend from my condo doesn’t carry beer this authentic. Luckily, Morimoto teamed with Rogue quite a while ago to make several beers. The one he recommends is his Soba Ale. I have no idea how much I liked it any more but the empty bottle is still sitting in my kitchen. Enjoy a #SippyTimeBeer of your liking this week. – Kevin