My latest article for The Bulletin, out this week, takes a look at Raspberry Black Butte Porter from Deschutes Brewery. I bought a four-pack to try it out and review it, and reached out to the brewery for some background.

“We asked ourselves what we could do to play with Black Butte Porter to enhance it that we’d never considered before,” [brewer James Scott] wrote via email. “With pastry stouts delighting craft beer fans, we wanted to bring some of that dessert driven inspiration to this specialty, landing on the intriguingly bright contrast of raspberry to the roasty chocolate of Black Butte.”

Naturally, I wondered if there was any trepidation in altering an iconic beer such as Black Butte.

“Not really,” said Scott, “we really just wanted to have some fun with it and give our signature porter a contrasting specialty twist.”

“(Raspberry will) be the first Porter variant, but we hope it’s not the last,” Scott said. “When it comes to fruited beers, raspberry is classic, but it’s especially cool to play with it on a dark beer backbone. The tartness and acidity with the chocolate roast of BBP really hits.”

My review notes are at the link. But I will offer up a spoiler and say that to my taste, it’s a fruit beer done right, and a fun variation to Deschutes’ classic.