Beer of the Week – Cross Borders Porter

Friday is with us once again and that can mean only one thing. It’s time to hit the town. But if you’re saving yourself and that extra-special Christmas jumper for the host of December parties, maybe just hit the town and pick up a single beer to drink at home. Yes it’s another unsung beer recommendation from yours truly – every week this year I have been talking about a specific beer I believe to be amazing and worthy of your time.

And if I’ve learned anything along the way, it’s that we are a fantastic collective nation of Porter brewers up here. The dark beers of London, Dublin, and anywhere else have a serious underdog scrapping at their heels in the beer producers of Scotland. This week’s selection is another quite brilliant native Porter, from the guys at Cross Borders in Dalkeith. With only a handful of places up for grabs in the 52 beer-series, it deservedly takes one of them.

47. Porter (4.2%)
Cross Borders Brewing Company, Dalkeith, Midlothian
Style: Porter
330ml can

Pick it up here:
At at eebria online (as individual 330ml cans)

What do you want from a porter? Something dark, roasty and bitter. Classic styles like this are at their very best when replicated down the line, and Cross Borders Porter is a true classic. Slightly smoky, something like roasted nuts, comes to the fore but then the faint sweetness arrives to balance it all out. There’s also coffee, chocolate and the whole thing is massively easy to drink. It’s a brilliant Porter.

Beer of the Week Series:
1. Fyne Ales Highlander
2. Swannay Old Norway
3. Broughton Old Jock
4. Traquair House Ale
5. Tempest Easy Livin Pils
6. Cromarty Brewed Awakening
7. Fallen Chew Chew
8. Black Isle Hibernator
9. Isle of Skye Red
10. Harviestoun Old Engine Oil Engineer’s Reserve
11. Orkney Skull Splitter
12. Windswept Wolf
13. Kelburn Dark Moor
14. Alechemy 5ive Sisters
15. Loch Ness Light Ness
16. St Andrews Eighty Bob
17. Harviestoun The Ridge
18. Orkney Dark Island
19. Williams Bros Seven Giraffes
20. Cairngorm Black Gold
21. Strathaven Craigmill Mild
22. Black Isle Red Kite
23. Spey Valley Spey Stout
24. Top Out Schmankerl
25. Cross Borders Braw
26. Williams Bros Midnight Sun
27. BrewDog Kingpin
28. Fyne Ales Hurricane Jack
29. Deeside MacBeth
30. Drygate Ax Man Red Rye IPA
31. Swannay Orkney Session
32. Fallen Platform C
33. Black Isle Porter
34. Top Out Altbier
35. Black Metal Gates of Valhalla
36. Fierce Beer Cranachan Killer
37. Loch Lomond Southern Summit
38. Tempest Old Parochial
39. Williams Bros Profanity Stout
40. Windswept Tornado
41. Campervan Pacific Zest
42. Swannay Sneaky Wee Orkney Stout
43. Cromarty Ghost Town
44. Fyne Ales Vital Spark
45. Knops Musselburgh Broke
46. Orkney Red MacGregor