Alaskan Baltic Porter

Brewed by Alaskan Brewing Co
Style: Baltic Porter
Juneau, Alaska USA

Bomber. Pours translucent deep brown with a creamy beige head. Aroma of brown sugar, vanilla and alcohol. Medium body and moderate carbonation. The taste is a bit hot, but I can pick up brown sugar, molasses, vanilla, chocolate. Lingering vanilla finish, I think I’d trade the warming character for a bit more drinkability.

22oz bomber, 2009. Deep brown with a 1/2 finger oily tan head, fair retention. Oak and roast dominate with some vanilla behind. There is also some dark chocolate, caramel, and molasses as well as faint dough. Flavor has strong new oak up front with vanilla and quite a bit of burnt roast immediately after. There is also a good bit of spicy alcohol. Had trouble discerning the cherries in the flavor--actually, in the aroma as well. Bitterness peaked at a 4 in the burnt finish. Didn’t pick up on as much chocolate in the flavor, either. Full body with light to moderate creamy carbonation. Not too bad, but I was expecting a little more. Once this warmed up, I found the cherries in the aroma and flavor, but didn’t really change anything for me.

Creamy, thick and chewy. Big flavors of dark grains, chocolate, molasses, tar and toffee. Unfortunately some cough syrup, too. Beyond the obnoxiously obvious cherries, there are some other nice fruity notes in there, just struggling for attention, such as prune, plum and raisins. Aromas of oak and vanilla and other various spices take up the rear, a bit too far in the rear. Overall, this beer has some really nice things going on, but it also has some odd and off things going on. Probably a tad too sweet, as well. Not horrible, IMO, just not all right.

Huge thanks to thethrone for hooking me up with this brew. The bottle was split between a few of us and poured in tulip glasses. It produced a small tan head that disappeared quickly and never was seen again. The body was midnight black in color with no highlights to be seen. The Madagascar vanilla was over the top what a wonderful aroma. As it warmed I got a slight cherry note but not much. The brew tasted as well as it smelled sweet, roasted, vanillin and coffees all come to mind. The feel in my mouth was medium with a slight carbonation I did wish for a little more. A great brew would love to drink it again. The strange thing to me was the said to age it, but there was no sediment in the bottom of the bottle. Was this brew filtered?

22oz bottle. thanks to kan for sharing. pours black with tan head. nose is very big! with loads of green apple and very sweet. flavors of green apple, brown sugar, honey, cherry juice. a thin body. what a drain pour.

(bottle from ditmier, thanks!) Pours jet black with a light tan head that disappears completely. Aroma is strong of cherry, soy sauce, dough, oak, and some chocolate is present as well. The flavor is incredibly well balanced, with a nice mix of cherry, properly roasted malt, chocolate, brown sugar, oak, and vanilla, that rounds out to an evenly roasted lightly oaky finish. The palate really stands out on this beer as it’s very smooth and silky. Even though this is a big beer, the silky mouthfeel makes it immensely drinkable. Thanks again Eric!

$8.49 for a bottle; I took the chance and OMG this is fucking delicious. One of the most distinctive beers or this or any style I can remember. On the flavor is some kind of caramelly, toffee-ey, sugary-sweet (without being cloying) character. Like oak-aged cherry is in here as well; cheating off the description here, I can readily see a cherry-vanilla thing as well, not unlike a soda spiked with that flavoring. I could even see the banana aspect as others here have described; it’s perhaps like the flavoring used in a fruit smoothie, quite breezy for lack of a better word. And it goes down as smooth as silk. Gets knocked down a peg for no head-retention. A very special beer; just too bad it’s priced so damn high.

Bomber. Pours deep dark mohagany with a foamy 2 finger tan head. The nose is roasty malt, banana, milk chocolate and faint coffee. The taste is lactose, ashy cocoa, caramel, chocolate covered bananas and a slight booze twinge in the finish. Nice semi-creamy mouthfeel. A tad sweet and a little hot, but decent.