Still, it’s an American game, so the beer panel decided to focus on American porters, 20 in all, at a recent tasting. Florence Fabricant and I were joined by Kirk Kelewae, the dining room manager at Eleven Madison Park, who oversees the restaurant’s beer list, and Hayley Jensen, the beer sommelier at Taproom No. 307 in Kips Bay.

Our tasting coordinator, Bernie Kirsch, was careful to seek out American porters that at least adhered to the spirit of the English style while avoiding American versions of Baltic and Imperial porters, powerful brews that, centuries ago, were strengthened to withstand shipping to the Baltic states and Russia. Because creative American brewers have latched onto that style, Bernie said it would have been easier to find 20 Baltic-style porters than the milder porters he assembled.

Nonetheless, one of the 20 beers was a little bit higher in alcohol, at 7.5 percent, than the others. And this, Speakeasy Payback Porter from San Francisco, turned out to be our favorite. It was the most complex, with roasted, smoky, spicy, grainy flavors. Yet it offered another order of power than the others; a delicious beer, though I would think twice before choosing it as my ballgame brew.

For that I would turn to our No. 2 beer, the Otter Creek Stovepipe Porter, which offered classic, perfectly balanced flavors of malt, coffee and chocolate at a mild 4.4 percent. It was as fresh and lively as if it had just been pulled from a brand-new keg.

Many of our favorites offered savory, roasted malt flavors, which Kirk called grain-driven and Hayley referred to as umami notes. American porters generally diverge from the classic formula by using American, rather than English, hops. Depending on a brewer’s choice, the American hops can add herbal nuances or can completely dominate.

For me, hop dominance was a deficit, blurring the distinction between porter and, regardless of the color differences, pale ales. Several beers didn’t make our top 10 because they were too hoppy. Others, like the Firestone Walker’s Reserve and the Southern Tier Porter, we ranked at 8 and 9 respectively, despite their hop dominance, because they were nonetheless so pleasing.

Still, we preferred beers where the hoppiness was less pronounced, like the Rogue Mocha Porter, with its dark roasted flavors and refreshing bitterness, and the Sierra Nevada Porter, in which the subtle use of West Coast hops emphasized the classic porter flavors. We also very much liked the earthy, smoky Steelhead Scotch Porter from Mad River, and the smooth, straightforward Silk Porter from Hoppin’ Frog.

Sadly, one of my favorite American porters, Black Butte from Deschutes Brewery in Oregon, is available only in selected parts of the country, not including the New York region. That’s too bad, because the Black Butte combination of roasted malt and delicate hop bitterness strikes me as a benchmark American porter. Guess I’ll have to save it for away games.