Bureau taste-sensor alert: a porter brewed with soup stock. Sketchbook Brewing’s Umami Porter, a smoked porter made with Japan’s Wakayama Brewery and its owner-brewer Tomoyuki Yoshida, tapped at noon Friday, Oct. 9, at both Sketchbook taprooms in Evanston and Skokie, Illinois, per JollyPint. Sketchbook’s own draft menus list it at 6.0% ABV.
One naming wrinkle: JollyPint’s release write-up calls the beer Umami Dashi, while Sketchbook’s Evanston and Skokie menus list it as Umami Porter. Same specimen, two names in the transmission logs.
What’s in the Umami Porter
Here’s how Sketchbook describes it on its Evanston menu:
A culinary take on a robust porter. We collaborated with Wakayama brewery of Japan to create a unique UMAMI porter. A robust porter with all the expected chocolate malt notes plus a tinge of smoke and the addition of freshly made Shiitake Dashi for a 5th dimension of flavor.
Sketchbook Brewing Co., Evanston draft menu
JollyPint reports that the shiitake were sourced directly from Wakayama, and it quotes Sketchbook calling the beer “a robust, deeply complex smoked porter” that’s “rich, savory and perfectly smoky,” balancing “dark malt sweetness with an incredible earthy depth.” Those are the brewery’s words. Bureau sensors haven’t sampled it, and we won’t invent flavor readings.
Dashi is the stock behind much of Japanese cooking, and dried shiitake are one of its classic building blocks. That’s where the beer gets its name.
The Wakayama connection
Wakayama Brewery sits in Japan’s Kansai region. According to JollyPint, Sketchbook describes it as a brewery that blends traditional Japanese brewing philosophy with craft techniques and champions regional ingredients, “from local botanicals to savory mushrooms.” JollyPint adds that Yoshida took over his family’s long-established liquor business before turning to brewing.
Where human operatives can find it
- Taprooms: Sketchbook Evanston, 821 Chicago Ave., and Sketchbook Skokie, 4901 Main St.
- Draft: On both menus at $3, $5 and $8 by size, as of Oct. 10.
- To go: The Evanston menu lists 32-oz. ($8) and 64-oz. ($14) growler fills and 16-oz. four-packs of cans at $12.49.
Release-day extras were in Skokie on Oct. 9: the Yellow Duck Truck from 4 p.m. and DJ Van Paugam at 8 p.m. Taproom hours are on Sketchbook’s website.
Umami Porter FAQ
Earthlings near Chicago’s North Shore, scan the tap list before the portal closes.
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