Capital Baltic Porter

Bottle from Heritage. Pours a thin black color with an amber tint and a fleeting tan head. Smells of tart cherries and coffee roast. Tastes of cola, bitter coffee, hops, and bland bakers cocoa. Has a decent malt profile, but the flavor is a bit weak.

Bottle from kmeves. Interesting dopplebock like aroma. Dark bread, caramel, chocolate, fruit. Auburn beer with no head. The flavors are light. Some chocolate cake or bread, toffee, dark fruit, a little tartness in the finish from the dark malts. Kind of light and uninspired. Not much going on.

Bottle. Poured a clear dark garnet brown color. The head was off white and reduced quickly to a thin film. Nice aroma of molasses-soaked plums, subdued chocolate, light blueberry, and date. Medium bodied and slightly sweet with low to moderate carbonation. Dark fruit flavors made an initial rush but faded quickly and yielded to soft toffee and molasses. A bit of warming alcohol emerged at the end and lingered. Decent.

12 oz bottle from Discount Liquors pours a dark raisin brown with a creamy beige head. Scents of brown sugar, spice, raisin, and malt. Sweet flavors. Smooth malts, raisins, burnt sugars. Light body but a long burnt malt finish with a touch of alcohol. Something seems slightly off, the charred notes are somewhat off-putting and the sweetness is surprising for its lack of body and the quickness it fades. Nothing great but drinkable and decent.

The beer pours into my 25cl tulip glass with a frothy, initially fat-two-finger thick, full tan colored head. The beer is a dark, concentrated amber color that shows a brilliantly clear, rich ruby hue when held up to the light. The aroma has a sweet, candy like, caramelized sugar note to it that almost seems to pick up a berry like note to it at times. Toasted grain notes that remind me of a nicely browned, chewy whole grain bread fresh from the oven, there is a touch of something that sort of reminds me of play-doh and there is a touch of warming alcohol aromatics in the finish.

Fairly sweet tasting, especially considering the beer does not feel overly rich or chewy. A touch of astringent malt character is found in the finish. This beer is mainly dominated by the sweet, caramelized malt notes that come off as very clean. While not overly thick, this does have a nice, soft, creamy texture to it. As the beer warms up a touch of roast character begins to peek through towards the finish; a light coffee note adds a hint of burnt acidity and astringency.

This drinks a bit lighter than its 8.5% abv might suggest. It is fairly tasty, but comes off a touch too clean (even for a lager) and simplistic than I would prefer.

Not sure who sent me this, but thanks. Pour is a dark, earthy brown. Nice brown head. Aroma of caramel, chocolate and roast malt. Bitter up front ending sweet and malty. Interesting flavor. Thin, but very smooth and drinkable.

Summary: Very drinkable, straightforward roasted malt beer. Aroma: Plenty of nose, mainly bourbon and vanilla. Appearance: Darkest brown in the glass, red when backlit, thin tan head, no lace. Flavor: Roast malt, and a lot of it, bitter and sweet are well balanced. Molasses is the primary malt characteristic, then a smoked, ashy finish. Palate: Drinks clean and smooth, with a little dust on the finish.

<i>12 oz bottle</i>

One of the only Capital releases that isn’t retired which I have yet to try I picked up two bottles. One had been tried; I have to figure out when to savor the other. For a brewery branching out into new styles they really did a great job here.

<b>Aroma / Appearance</b> - A half finger ochre head rested on the dark cherry body leaving strands of lacing. Sweet chocolate chips, cherry pie, fresh maple sugar and malts melded into a balanced experience.

<b>Flavor / Palate</b> - The semi-chewy mouthfeel crawled past the tongue and down the throat. Along the way it released expensive chocolate dipped cherries and a light bitterness. The alcohol does not pop out until a few minutes after the last sip. Fairly unique for the style it is a great addition to the beer world.