Cheshire Chocolate Porter Brewed by Frederick Robinson LTD for Marks and Spencer Beer Review

Welcome to the Drink in the Sights Cheshire Chocolate Porter from Robinson's Brewery beer review. Cheshire Chocolate Porter is the last of my Marks and Spencer beer reviews and as usual I've left the beer I expect to like the most until last. I have a sweet tooth and porters are among my favourite beer varieties so I'm hoping for something special here. The beer is brewed exclusively for Marks and Spencer by Frederick Robinson brewery in Stockport. Where have I heard of Robinson's Brewery before? I hear you ask and the answer is they brew Trooper as a collaboration with rock giants Iron Maiden, plus they own a couple of hundred pubs, and have been brewing since 1838 so they're a reasonably big deal.

Cheshire Chocolate Porter comes in a very plain 500ml bottle with a unicorn on the front, it looks reasonably traditional. The description says 'this chocolate porter was created by Frederick Robinson using an original recipe first brewed in 1899 with the collaboration of renowned chocolatier Simon Dunn.' I'll be honest I've never heard of Simon Dunn, but then I don't know many chocolatiers, still it seems to have good provenance. The beer also offers a bit of a kick with its higher than I expected 6% alcohol content. This could be fun.

The beer pours a dark chestnut colour, which is much less black than I was hoping for. Similarly the head is also really small. This really doesn't look like a porter at all and could easily be mistaken for a brown ale, which is a shame because I really fancied a porter tonight. Not surprisingly the aroma is mainly dark chocolate, but it's quite a mild smell, not one that screams this'll taste like dessert. I'm starting to think Cheshire Chocolate Porter may be less fun than I was hoping for.

The texture is far too thin to be a porter, this beer just doesn't make sense, if you're going to make a porter make a porter not a brown ale, but anyway... The taste matches the aroma, it's mildly chocolate with some vanilla and maybe a little caramel thrown in too, really for a 6% beer the whole experience is just very mild and a little tame. This is an awkward one to rate because it doesn't do what it says on the bottle, it's just not a porter, but it's a tasty, if unspectacular beer. I'm going to give Cheshire Chocolate Porter from Frederick Robinson Ltd 6.5 out of 10. If you want a decent mildly chocolate brown ale this will do you nicely, but if you want a chocolate porter you'll be left feeling a little let down.