Baltika 6 Porter

Brewed by Baltika Brewery (Baltic Beverages Holding - Carlsberg)
Style: Baltic Porter
St. Petersburg, Russia

Serve in English pint, Shaker, Snifter

Dark brown appearance with some red shining through below a bubbly tan head. Banana bread in the nose with some candyish brown sugar notes. A hint of cherry is also evident among a sweet roasty malt aroma. The body is smooth and quite sweet with malt. Alcohol kicks in in the middle but is covered up by a light hop bitterness behind a sweet, roasty malt backbone. A hint of iron in the end is disheartening, but other than that, a nice baltic, belonging in this terrific style.

500 ml bottle. I love the labels on these guys. Black cherry colored, smallish but strong head. Big sweet malty raisin-port-chocolate-caramel nose, not much roasted character. Huge malt character in the flavor, and some smokiness towards the end. I didn't really find this too sweet, it has enough robustness towards the end to keep it from cloying. Just a touch thicker and a little less wine in the front palate would make this perfect, but it's extremely good as is. Seems almost closer to a doppelbock, but I don't care about style adherence when the beer's this good.

Dark brown with a big brown head. Aroma of malt and something I don't recognize. Flavor is slightly burnt and tootsie roll like.

Ruby-brown with a foamy, tan head. Aromas are chocolate, nutty and sweet. Smooth, with flavors of burnt chocolate, smoky coffee, and brown sugar. Good balance with a bitter finish. Not as heavy as most porters and worth trying again.

Pours black, until you hold it up to the light, with a thick but quickly dissipating reddish tan head. Aroma of munich and black malts with som lactic notes. Some stalish noble hops as well. Flavors are very smoky, not rauchbier smoky, but smoky all the same. A good amount of choclatiness to. Wet palate. Medium bodied. This beer is a very good example of what the differences between a baltic porter and an imperial stout should be. A great example of the style and unfortunately, those of us here at ratebeer (including myself) are hooked on Imperial stouts, and tend not to appreciate a beer that resembles but does not copy that style. Very enjoyable.

Sweet candied malt aroma, with some chocolate, and a hint of licorice. Deep brown, red at the edges, smallish toffee head. Sweet smoke, and peat flavours, also licorice and treacle. Bitter, full bodied, a bold offering.

Bottle-Huge thanks to Erway for sharing this fine baltic porter with me on his las Cruces visit. Pours a deep brown with a nice tan, rocky head that was gone pretty fast. A tinge of red around the rim of my glass shows that this wasnt the darkest of all baltic porters out there. Roasty, slightly sour aroma when cold. As it warmed, a subtle smokey note came through. very nice! Full body, slightly chewey palate. flavors of dark malts, chocolate, smoke and dusty esters. Long chocolate finish with a tinge of smoke. Very complex and I really enjoyed this one.

Pours a ruddy brown, quite dark and Almost opaque. Good head, medium brown, quite burnt, lasting. Small amount of lacing. Aroma quite nice, roasted barley, black currant, raisins. Opens up so even and balanced. Great amount of malt and a nice bitter kick. Coffee, dark, ripe fruits. No wateriness, medium body. Flavor is wonderful, lagered peppery mouthfeel. Wow, I am writing this and wanting to drink more (except i dont have any more). I REALLY like this style. Biggest drawback to baltika 6 is the relative lack of complexity on the finish. Compared to this, zwyiec is a jigsaw puzzle. BUT, I will most often take this over zwyiec as this is much more balanced and does not use a ridiculous amount of alcohol. I do need to rerate zwyiec though.