Blackbeard's Breakfast (Revisited)

"On your way now. And tell the world that you sailed with Blackbeard."

- Blackbeard

If one sailed with Blackbeard, what would one eat? Historical accounts noted that, generally, pirate vessels generally stocked themselves with meat, vegetables and perhaps even fruit. There are stories of how one pirate - Francois L'Onnais - offered in 1666 to leave the port of Maracaibo if he was supplied with 500 head of cattle. Another pirate, Henry Morgan raided a Cuban town seeking a ransom of 500 cattle. Even when they were successful, pirates still had issues. For example, what do you do with 500 cattle at sea? The possible answer lies with another pirate, Jean Tocard, who occupied the Mexican port city of Tampico in 1682 for the purpose of slaughtering cattle. 

Notwithstanding these stories about cattle, the cuisine aboard a pirate ship could hardly be equated with the menu of a steakhouse. Fresh ingredients don't last long with the salty air of the open seas. After the first few days or weeks, the menu aboard a pirate ship would feature more salted and pickled options than fresh meat or vegetables. That fresh steak would have more likely been a salted strip of jerky better used as a belt than as something that could be digested in a stomach.

I write all of this because I got to thinking about this question as I poured a bottle of Blackbeard's Breakfast, a porter brewed by Heavy Seas Brewing just outside of Baltimore, Maryland. What would Blackbeard's breakfast actually look like? Once I took a sip of the beer, those thoughts quickly subsided.

Instead, I got lost in the pitch black color of the porter, graced only by the caramel notes of the foam. Those are shades or hues that probably resembled the salted, jerked meat ate by pirates after weeks at sea. In any event, the brewers note that the beer is their take on an imperial porter, and, in that regard, an oily black beer is right on target. 

The Blackbeard's Breakfast also hits all of the other notes for an imperial porter. There were the aromatic elements of the roasted malts, twisting together with the aroma of the dark Sumatra coffee from Chesapeake Bay Roasting Company. (I always like it when brewers incorporate local ingredients and locally-owned businesses as part of the creativity in the brewing process.) I could also get the faint whiffs of the alcohol coming from the beer being aged in bourbon barrels. That aging also made its way into the taste of the beer, with a strong bourbon backbone upon which the coffee notes and roasted malt flavors were layered, as well as the ABV, which is 10%.

Heavy Seas' Blackbeard Breakfast is perhaps one of the best imperial porters that I have had in recent memory. In fact, it may the best one that I have had in a very long time. If you can find it on a store's shelf, it is definitely worth the price. However, given it is only a limited release, chances are one will have to wait ... just like a pirate ... for a fresh new release.

ENJOY!

P.S. As it turns out, I previously reviewed Heavy Seas' Blackbeard's Breakfast over two years ago. I did not realize that fact until after I posted this review. In any event, the previous review can be found here.