Emerson’s Baltic Porter

UPDATED: NOV 8, 2012 This is a lovely porter, perhaps too mellow and creamy to be called a “Baltic”. Not sure whether this is a lager type of Schwarzbier as most true Baltic porters are, but its faint sweet mocha aroma and medium body are far away from being near the pungent, stark and resinous challenges of the Russian Imperial Stouts that Baltic Porters were historically meant to imitate. The palate does not leave us with much in the end. It is an absolutely pleasant porter, don’t get me wrong, but by all means I’d really like to taste a more bold porter. Emersons should dare to inject tons of Otago sea salt, buckets of block mountain schist, some measures of Hokonui moonshine and gallons of fur seal lard in their kettles (in Dunedin they have Andrew Hore, a great seal shooter, a sure supplier). I dare to expect better. Emerson’s do know how to make fabulous beer as their London Porter, or that masterpiece of theirs, the Taieri George.