Home > Great Northern Porter brewed by Summit Brewing - St. Paul, MN
Great Northern Porter brewed by Summit Brewing - St. Paul, MN
Great Northern Porter(1986) brewed by the Summit Brewing Company
in St. Paul, MN
Porter was originally
named after London market workers who popularized this brew, Summit Brewing
dubbed its Porter with a nod to the majestic railway stretching from St. Paul to
Seattle. Roasted malts offer up coffee notes leading to a slightly sweet,
chocolatey finish. All aboard! Gold Medal winner at the Great American Festival
and the World Beer Championship. Brewed with Northdown, Fuggle, Cascade hops and
2-Row Pale, Caramel, Chocolate malt. ABV: 5.6%. IBUs: 45
Summit Brewing is a regional craft brewery in St. Paul, Minnesota,
that brews a wide selection of popular beers. It is sometimes
mistakenly believed to be a microbrewery, even though Summit's
output is in the top 50 of breweries in the United States,
approximately 105,000 barrels of beer per year. Their flagship beer,
Summit Extra Pale Ale is especially popular in the Twin Cities area.
Beer Review by Beer Advocate
Appearance - Beautiful beer. Very dark brown, almost black. A 1/4"
head that hangs out.
Aroma - Sweet malt and nutty- not very pronounced though. You really
have to jam your nose in to get the aroma.
Taste - I could hang out with this beer. It's got great flavor-
coffee, chocolate, coffee, malty, and a very faint hoppiness, but
it's balanced and easy drinking. It's on the "session" side of
American Porters, but it is far from watery or thin. I would give it
a 5 if the hop bitterness dried up a little sooner, but that's the
only improvement I'd like to see.
Mouthfeel - Medium carbonation, medium body, and leaves a silky sort
of texture. it's not dry, and the flavor that hangs out is very
delightful.
Overall - Best american porter that I've had so far. Simply
delicious, sessionable, and traditional all at the same time. I
really love this beer. I would buy a case and pick through it all
winter.
Mouth feel- This one is a nice medium body, but a little too watery.
That does not help in a beer that is so roasty.
Overall- This beer is one you really need to let warm up, or you
will never have a clue that this has such a nice powdered cocoa
profile.
History of Summit Brewing Company
The brewery was founded in 1986 by local brewer Mark Stutrud and a
group of his friends in an old auto parts warehouse on St. Paul's
University Avenue. Their beers quickly became local favorites, and
the company began to grow rapidly. In 1987, the Great Northern
Porter won a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival and was
featured on the cover of Michael Jackson's New World Guide to Beer.
By 1998, the company's beer production had exceeded the capacity of
the original University Avenue brewery, and a new brewery was built
on the west end of St. Paul, overlooking the Mississippi River.
Having outgrown it, Summit sold its 1938-vintage brewing equipment
to Mt. Shasta Brewing Company in Northern California. They then
purchased a set of brewing equipment built in 1971 from the
Hürnerbräu Brewery in Ansbach Germany.
In 2009 Summit launched the Unchained Series. The brewery asks their
brewers to brew any beer of their choice - which they then bottle,
keg and sell. They have brewed the following beers: Kölsch, Belgian
Golden Ale, Black Ale, Gold Sovereign Ale, Honeymoon Saison,
Imperial Pumpkin Porter, Dunkle Weizen & India Rye Ale.
