Aldaris Porteris

Brewed by Aldaris (Baltic Beverages Holding - Carlsberg)
Style: Baltic Porter
Riga, Latvia

Bottle. Dark brown-black body with a small chocolate coloured head. Sweet chocolate and raisin, with mild dilute – almost smokey or ashen – roast in aroma. Very nice flavour with chocolaty malt, light dry grainy cocoa that hints at ovaltine. Fairly sweet, thinnish palate works for it. Intriguing, pleasant, but I suspect it might not stand up to more in depth scrutiny. 6/3/7-8/3/14

Bottle (500ml). Shared with blankboy, GregClow, jerc, mds and tupalev, mds’s bottle. Clear deep ruby-brown with a decent creamy tan head. Roasty malt aroma, very nutty, rich yeast character and plenty of grassy, almost mint leaf herbal hops - dry, mildly alcoholic. Taste was similar to the aroma, tons of lightly roasted caramel malt, very sweet, alcoholic and herbal, with some bitterness emerging in the finish to battle the sweetness - it reminded me of a liquid chlorophyll supplement my mother takes regularly, sweet yet pungently herbal. A decently thick body for a porter, sticky and sweet - pretty nice, certainly not the best, a little too much like caramel toffee and that herbal character was pretty odd.

Molasses coloured body is topped by an initially large, slowly departing beige head with irregular bubbles. Minimal anise, wet earth and dark rather watery roasted malts form most of the aromatic component while a mineral edge imparts a weird plateau for the sweetness to thrive in. Actually sugary in mouth, in a brown sugar fashion without much of the fruity glory I’ve come to expect from authentic baltic porters. Nowhere juicy, easily drinkable sweet beer with limited dark malt character. A bit dull frankly.

Any first impressions?
-An appropriate head of foam covers the reddish blackness.
-Dry black beans and molasses sweetness are both discreet and underdeveloped in the nose.
-Thin roastiness is no match for the pleasant toffee and molasses.
-The cushiony mouthfeel is created by ample maltiness and big bubbles.

What if you dig deeper?
-Some fruitiness thrives within, but in lower levels than most Baltic Porters; there is no vinosity here, for example.
-The ending is smooth, and recalls some roastiness.
-Sweet, but fun simplicity in this well-brewed, unpretentious baltic porter.

Bottle; batch #1B021142...

Dark brown with red highlights. Light brown head. Oxidized earthy aroma. Chocolate and toffee. Very bitter. Chocolate, coffee, caramel. Rich body.

(thanks to kevin for hooking this up)brownish/red body with a nice white head.very sweet in the aroma and flavor department.nice thick mouthfeel

(Bottle 50 cl) A dark, reddish brown beer with a bubbly, beige, dissipating head. Aroma of roasted malt and dried fruit. Fairly solid body, Starts rather sweet, but you quickly get the sense of some burned malt that also leave a fairly distinct bitterness. A very solid Porter. 300706

Foamy and bulky head, clearly hazel color, good cream and persistence. Intense black color. Complex and immediately alcoholic scent. Warm and wrap notes of torrefy malt, coffee, liquorice and alcohol (predominant). Soft and much bitter taste, decided alcoholic impact with aromas of burnt wood and bitter cacao. Light smoked aromas on the end. Complex, perhaps overly alcoholic, but considerable.
Thanks to mabjork for this beer.