Alaskan Baltic Porter

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

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.

nose is incredibly messy and covered in butane, ethanol and plain old vehicle gasoline. i guess there are some syrupy chocolate malts in there that develop with some aeration and oxidation in the glass, but i can’t get past how messy, sharp and boozy this beer smells. fizzy carbonation with a syrupy and thick body... this stuff tastes like Robitussin. no shit. sugared plum juice and nyquil/licorice in the finish. carbonation dissolves across the back of the palate, leaving the body peaked and weak. awful.

2009 bottle. The beer pours very nearly black but with some garnet highlights; the head is moderately full, tan, and foamy with a small layer lasting entirely but leaves very little foamy lace. Nose is amazing and decadent; so many things to list but... Black cherry notes are noted right away being juicy and jammy, the oak is almost like oak shavings from a wood shop but also bringing toasted caramel notes, the vanilla is complementary to the oak and not overly sweet, some spicy alcohol, light English toffee, maybe even a bit of cocoa. Flavor is nice but the sugar and vanilla dominate too much of the flavor for the other complexities to show; very fruity with the same dark cherry notes, light raisin and currant, lots of toffee, excellent oak shavings notes and toasted oak, and the overly sweet and sugary vanilla notes throughout. Palate is moderately full, lively, delicately dry from the oak, and lightly silky. The finish is fairly short but understandably so from the lager yeast with notes of light earth, a mild bitterness, toasted oak, and lingering vanilla. To be honest, beers that add this many adjuncts to their beer I am usually not in favor of but the flavors seemed to meld together very well. The only complaint for this one is the sweetness of the sugar and vanilla in the flavor, but the oak notes are amazing and unmatched by most oak beers. This brewery has done very well with their big beers and this one is no different; I only wish they added less of the vanilla and sugar and it may be excellent.

Don’t even think of drinking this cold. Must be at room temperature to get the most out of it. This has all the flavors but they don’t blend together. The oak chips are especially prominent and add too much of a Jack Daniels effect. In fact it is like you took a shot of Jack poured it in your beer. Too harsh on the senses. If it were smoother and mellow would be much better. Thin body. Varnish like. On the bright side it gets much better as it warms.

Bottle. 2009. Dark brown beer with a tan head. Rich malt and light roast aroma with light oak. dark fruit and rich toffee/caramel flavor with vanilla, earth, and light chocolate. medium-plus bodied. Dark fruit and rich malt lingers with light vanilla and light chocolate.

22oz bottle $9. I bought this just because I like their barleywine, bad idea. This was dark black, decent head, looks just fine to me. The smell was sweet, sticky, vanilla, uhhhhh. The flavor hada hint of the cherries and a lot of vanilla sweetness. I honestly could not get past what the vanilla and oak had done to this beer and I did not think there was anything special about it. It was not a bad beer it was just quite average tasting and I was expecting to be wowed. Oh well.....

Bottle. Black pour with beige head. Aroma is lots of roasted malt, vanilla, molasses and brown sugar. Flavor is the same, with the vanilla and wood taking a pretty large role. Sweet underneath, probably from the cherries, although they are not very distinct. Flavor gets a little muddled in the aftertaste.

Pours nearly black with a ring of dark tan foam - sugary sweet aroma, with strong notes of bourbon, vanilla, cherry, toasted oak - smells more and more like bourbon with each sniff, which is fine by me - initially, the flavor is strong, burnt sugars, and not much else - this is followed by doughy character, light cherry, strong vanilla - some brown sugar, raisins - just the faintest hint of oak, but none of the bourbon the aroma suggests - syrupy sweetness persists throughout, but a moderate bitterness comes through in the finish to try to balance it out, but it arrives a bit too late - some decent flavors going on, but it’s way too sweet.