Beer of the Week: Populuxe Ate2Four Plum Porter

By Iron Chef Leftovers

A few months back, Populuxe brewed a plum porter which I was very much enamored with. Since it was just about plum season, I offered them up the plums off my trees, which they took me up on. In exchange for the plums, the kind folks at Populuxe let me name the beer. I bounced around the names for a while and I finally decided to name it after my house number – 824. Being the deranged mind that I have, I couldn’t just use the number, so I decided to engage in a bit of word play – hence Ate2Four. Hey, it may not be the best name, but I get a kick out of it, and my goal in life is to crack myself up, so tough.

The beer pars dark black with strong notes of chocolate and coffee on the nose. The beer starts out with some bold but not overpowering flavors of chocolate and coffee on the initial taste with a strong malt character. Those flavors linger before finishing with mild balancing notes of dried fruit and raisins that linger for quite a long time. Those notes are there but are not dominating the beer, so you may not recognize them unless you knew they were there. This beer is very well balanced and is not your typical fruit beer – the plums compliment the roasted coffee and chocolate notes of the beer, acting as a balancing flavor rather than a dominant one in the beer.  Think of this one as a really nice brown porter with a supporting plum flavor instead of a plum beer that is porter based.

The other day, this beer was poured at Brew at the Zoo. The keg kicked in about 1 hour 15 minutes – helped along by it being the most interesting beer being poured at the list and was one of a small handful of dark beers being poured. For those who did not get to try this beer, it may be making a comeback in the fall. Check out the Populuxe Facebook site for their current tap list.

I am very happy to have contributed to the success of this beer and yes, I am biased, but the Ate2Four version of the Plum Porter was every bit as good as the original, copying its brother with a perfect 5 Xerox out of 5.