Taking a line (and a minor bit of imagery) from the classic song ‘You’re a Mean one, Mr. Grinch’, from ‘How the Grinch Stole Christmas!’, Yukon Brewing has produced this ‘chocolate cherry porter’, which I am happy to have in front of me now.

This 650ml bottle pours a clear, dark bronzed amber colour, with one thick finger of puffy, finely foamy, and mildly bubbly beige head, which leaves a few instances of remote islet lace around the glass as things quickly progress.

It smells of bready and doughy caramel malt, faint cocoa powder, some cherry and mixed berry fruitiness, subtle cafe-au-lait, and very tame earthy, leafy, and floral green hop bitters.  The taste is grainy and bready caramel malt, bittersweet chocolate, fading sweet cherry notes, cold coffee, a hint of black licorice, and more understated earthy, herbal, and floral verdant hoppiness.  The carbonation is fairly inert in its bored-seeming frothiness, the body a decent middleweight, and generally smooth, with nothing really getting in the way of a good time here.  It finishes off-dry, the malt sort of squashing any lingering aspirations of the guest ingredients.

Overall – this is a pleasant enough holiday-themed tipple, with the chocolate and cherry essences coming in kind of under the radar.  And kudos to using just the right amount of Grinch homage on the label to avoid movie house litigation, eh?