Brendan Fraser movies used to always be the same: some fish out of water guy has to adapt to modern life. He’s a caveman, he’s from the jungle, he’s…Canadian? The entirety of Buried Acorn has a Blast From the Past simplicity to it. Our collective palates are Alicia Silverstone’s onlooking support.

A few years ago, an “old fashioned brewery” would be pejorative. In the wake of drinking literal aseptic 2% abv fruit puree from frosted $190 borosilicate bowls, simple sounds good. Buried Acorn makes beer like if you pulled a 2004 tome off the shelf and looked up the style guidelines during the G W Bush administration.

That coy naivety of flip phones and Myspace RaNdOmNesS feels winsome. Sure, many of the beers will feel so standard that you can almost overlook an over the plate Belgian single, but one stood out.

This porter is so well done, and a call back to ::commences whittling:: simpler times. The mocha carb and frothy sustain is there. The toasty roast of overcooked flapjacks is present. The creamy clean mouthfeel nodding lovingly to Edmund Fitz practically pulls you into the CRT television era.

It’s a weird zone to be praising a relatively low alcohol dark beer that tastes lightly scorched, but it beats drinking Caro syrup. It seems to lean closer to black patent than chocolate malt, but the important thing is that it doesn’t beg for barrel treatment, it isn’t distracting, you can drink this in a movie theater and if you don’t take a photo of this or check it into your portermon database your life will go on.

Alexander Wang designed for Balenciaga and no one wanted his clothes because they were all either extreme or monochrome. This porter is a return to the luxurious simplicity of Debna, a chocolate courduroy thrift store jacket you enjoy for years no one asks you about. Sometimes the best pleasures are those secret throwback pleasures, the furtive judgmental glances from strangers as you eat a Filet O Fish during lent.

If you haven’t visited this robust style in a while, crack one of these in a Balenciaga store and watch them just let you drink it. Kardashians are heavy into porters now.