Baltika 6 Porter

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

Serve in English pint, Shaker, Snifter

Pours with a five-fingered light brown head that fades slowly and leaves some lace. Good carbonation. Black as midnight. Nose is clearly a sweet, roasted coffee. Starts smooth, malty and strong coffee flavor, finishes with a little hoppiness and bitterness. A very good porter.

Sampled from bottle at Danish Beer Festival 2004 (#40).
Almost black beer with a tan head. Sweet chocolaty aroma - typical porter. Flavor of sweet roasted malt, milk chocolate and bitter hops. Not very strong but tasty!

The beer came in a 500 ml. brown bottle with a best by date of 16 October 2005. As the bottle was uncapped, and beer poured, the dark brown - bordering on pitch black – body was revealed, and a half inch thick brown head formed briefly, before receding to a thin collar of foam. Aroma was more fruity and vinous than a typical porter with a smell consisting of chocolate covered plums, cherries, and raisins. Taste was also devoid of much roastiness, with sweet plum and caramel flavors dominating. There was scant evidence of faded roast grain flavor if I let the beer linger longer on the palette. Slight oxidation was apparent in the aftertaste with a hint of soy. As complex as it was, I can think of several craft Baltic style Porters that are better. This was more of an easy drinking industrial interpretation of the style.

Pours almost black with a firm creamy brown head. Sour toasty chocolate malt nose. Big chocolate and sour goodness. Piles of malt and brown sugar. Citric finish with some sweet and sour yeastiness.

Near black with ruby highlights. Large tan head slowly retreats. Beautiful lacing. Aroma of sweet malt and fruit. Sweet chocolate flavor with coffee notes. Somewhat port like. Lingering dry cocoa finish. Very nice.

16.9oz bottle. 62° out of the cellar. Served in a pint glass. Dark brown/black color with red tints and a small tan head. The aroma is roasty with some definate fruitness coming from the hops. Smells good, but a bit weak. The taste is roasty malt that transitions into a nice hops flavor with a touch of bitterness. The hops taste citrusy. The finish is dry and roasty, with an almost espresso quality. It seems to lack the lactic flavor that seems to be present in most baltic porters, instead it seems like a regular american porter with a good helping of hops. The mouthfeel is big, but not too big, and is about average for the style. This is a good beer that blows its sibling, #4, out of the water.

Bottle. Pours a dark brown with a little bit of a cola head. Aromas sweet and roasted malt with a little bit of a peat and prune as well. This has a nice mix of earth, nuts, toffee and a little bit of dark fruit across the palate. From time to time a bit of iron or something of the sort comes out... which is the biggest knock that I have. Other than that it is considerably less syrupy and cloying than most Baltics I’ve had. This makes it much more enjoyable for my palate.

UPDATED: JUN 13, 2005 (Bottle 50 cl) Completely black and opaque. Small, dense light-brown head. Extremely burned notes, dry and very aromatic - spicy. A very solid Porter with lots of character and alcohol. Excellent. 210704