Baltika 6 Porter

Brewed by Baltika Brewery (Baltic Beverages Holding - Carlsberg)
Style: Baltic Porter
St. Petersburg, Russia

Pour is black with a tinge of red on the edges. The head was a frothy cream that disipated quickly leaving decent lacing on the glass. The aroma was bitter chocolate. The taste and mouth feel were nice. Bitter chocolate, caramel, raisin, with a very smooth feel. Quite nice. 8/4/7/4/17

RERATE: Pitch black pour with a creamy mocha head and beautiful cream lacing down the glass. The aroma is mild chocolate and roast. A little sweet. The flavor is more complex then I remember with notes of caramel, peanut butter, sugar, roasted malt. There is something about this beers flavor that makes it stand out. And its a very beautiful beer to behold.

Bottle brought over from Kaliningrad by one of Masha’s friends, much appreciated. Drunk at tashi’s place, 15th June 2008. Near black in colour and almost totally still, this has a delicate soft malt and dark chocolate flavour and aroma. It’s very smooth with a sweet aftertaste. Brings back great memories of my 2006 road trip to Kaliningrad with tashi and it’s still an awesome beer. The new bottle shape with embossed crest looks really classy and is easier to hold. Now the brewery just needs to see the light and make it readily available in the UK!

0.5 l bottle. Pours a nice deep brown, tan head. Clear. Aroma is clean with a faint malty roasty note. Flavor is rather shallow, with some maltiness, but not the depth that you would want or expect. Dry finish. OK but I want more.character...

Color pours dark syrupy brown turning blackish as it levels into the glass, head is a supernatural light brown, much like that of parchment paper, so sad to see it go so fast. Leaves huge sheets of lace, nice. Smell is gorgeous with dark fruits, I detect cherry, melon, star fruit, and for sure bananas, hardly anything else, but who cares, this is awesome, its like a frickin fruit salad, super enchanting and pleasing nose. Tastes like no other I've had, mostly up front of banana and light, sweet roasted malt, very unusual and interestingly yummy. A bit like candied fruits but no sugary stuff, just the fruit, dark and rich. The feel is medium and quite full, very smooth and easy - no tricks to this creation. One fine porter with a bit of a different approach then most, and kudos to that.

Bottle - 500ml. Opaque black body with low carbonation and a thick beige foamy head. Good malty/hoppy aroma with roasted coffee and dark chocolate hints. Taste is very well balanced. It carries these same chocolate and coffeeish notes as the aroma, hides the alcohol pretty well, and ends with a decent bittersweet, warming finish. This is probably the only product from Baltika that deserves any attention.

Good looking beer. Pretty tasty, if a litttle light on flavor for a porter. Chocolatey malts, short finish. Not bad at all.

Dark brown with red highlights and a nice tan head. Aroma is very sweet with vanilla, roasted notes, and wood. Flavor is dark fruit, coffee, bourbon, and chocolate. Feel is thick, powdery, and pleasant. Having been disappointed by some of this brewers other offerings, I find this to be a unique and quality beer.

Dark brown appearance with some red shining through below a bubbly tan head. Banana bread in the nose with some candyish brown sugar notes. A hint of cherry is also evident among a sweet roasty malt aroma. The body is smooth and quite sweet with malt. Alcohol kicks in in the middle but is covered up by a light hop bitterness behind a sweet, roasty malt backbone. A hint of iron in the end is disheartening, but other than that, a nice baltic, belonging in this terrific style.