Iron Hill Baltic Porter

Tasted from 750ml reserve bottle at the Iron Hill in North Wales. Poured a dark black color with a smaller sized off white head. Aromas of vanilla, lactose, chocolate, and roasted malts. Tastes of chocolate, coffee, vanilla, and roast. Smooth body.

Bottle… DLD’08… Murky brown beer with a small, creamy, off-white head. Malty aroma offers notes of sweet chocolate, caramel and coffee. Full-bodied and creamy with modest carbonation. Chocolate and caramel sweetness… mocha too. Finishes mostly sweet and lightly bitter.

West Chester. Dark black/brown pour with minimal tan head and aroma of chocoff, roast malt, some molasses. Tastes roasty malty, with some chocolate syrup, coffee, and hops in the finish.

Cask @ West Chester... Poured a dark brown / reddish color with a medium sized, tan, creamy head that left nice lacing on the glass. Aroma of chocolate, smoke, nuts, roasted malts, mocha, and alcohol. Taste of rich milk chocolate, roasted malts, smoke, nuts, vanilla cream, and light alcohol in the finish. Creamy, but thin mouthfeel.

Unlabelled 750ml corked and caged bottle courtesy of hopdog. After about 10 minutes of trying, I was finally able to get the cork out of the bottle. As the contents were poured into the glass, a dark brown beer with a generous tan head revealed itself. Aromas of bubblegum, chocolate and some vegatal qualities initially dominated before giving way to some subtle mocha and brown sugar. Tastes of chocolate (both dark and cocoa), and some vanilla. As the beer warms, the chocolate becomes even more pronounced and some booziness creeps in. Mouthfeel is robust and full. Finish is of bitter cooking cacao. One really needs to like chocolate to like this one (which fortunately I do). Some underlying coffee and well hidden earthy hops reveal themselves as the glass empties. A very interesting beer, but not typical of a Baltic Porter.