Carnegie Stark Porter

Brewed by Carlsberg Sverige
Style: Porter
Falkenberg, Sweden

2006 bottle enjoyed 11.27.09. Pours near black with a slight red hue, thin but creamy frothy cream colored head. Aroma is sweet rich and grassy, smooth rich chocolate malt oxidation, hay, some buttery fullness, fairly English, faintest hint of fruitiness, cookie dough. Flavor is fairly fruity, oily, grassy, some bitter chocolate finishing with coffee, fair amount of diacetyl, sweet, rich. fruity. Medium bodied but thin feeling, oily with chunky bubbly carbonation.

Very good looking beer, particularly for a porter with a few years on it. Black liquid with a nice foamy head and plenty of lacing. Interesting smell. It’s probably a bit weaker but more complex now than it was fresh. There are notes of sweet stone fruit and roasted malt. The taste is sweet, roasty and fruity. The flavor is exceptionally well-melded and balanced. Good bitterness, not too sweet. Creamy and smooth. I was expecting disappointment but received just the opposite.

2009 vintage. Dark brown with a tanned head that settles into some lacings. Aromas of smooth malts, rye bread, caramel and notes of vinous fruits. A hint of coffee. The taste is somewhat mild and restrained, but rather good. The taste is mostly sweet with bready malts to the fore. Notes of vinous fruits, wood and a hint of coffee. Faint note of chocolate. The finish is rather short with a minimal bitterness, mineral notes, wood and malty sweetness. Medium body. The carbonation is of the sort you most often find in mass produced fizzy lagers. D: This is a good beer, but no more. I like the vinous and fruity character it showcases. But it’s kind of restrained, both in terms of aromas and flavors, and it lacks complexity, and in my opinion, its reputation as one of the best porters in the world is greatly exaggerated. Perhaps it once was, but the way the brewery has treated this classic beer during the last decade is embarrassing. Serving type: bottle (Copy of old Beer Advocate review)

Bottle at Stockholm Beer and Whisky Festival. Dark ruby red with tan head. Aroma of roasted malt and toffee. Taste of more roasted malt, dark chocolate, and sweet fruity notes.

Årgang 2007. Very dark ruby appearing black with a thinning, tenacious beige collar. Dark dark cherry on rye bread aroma; fruit cake, prunes, thinly spread Marmite, wax jacket, a faint dusting of roast. No small amount of alcohol on the palate, but with the richness of body to carry it off; thick doppelbock-like wholemeal and rye bread malts, black cherries, prunes, gentle burnt toastiness buried in silk. Altogether more like a doppelbock than anything Baltic I’ve had before. Rich, enveloping and impressive at the strength. Winner.

Bottle. As ’Porter, Klass III’. Pours a reddish dark brown with a big frothy beige/light brown head. Sweet, tart aroma with notes of rye and plums/dark fruits. Faint roasted notes in the background. A distinct berry tartness appear as it warms. Sweet flavour if dark fruits with faint notes of rye. Bitterish, malty finish with a milky touch. Overall rather peculiar for a porter; took some time to appreciate it, especially as it wasn’t anything like the 3.5% version which I quite liked except that I found it too watery, and expected this to be an un-watery 3.5. Still, okay, although I wouldn’t go for this if I was in the mood for a ’regular’ porter.

Flaska 10 grader. UTS: Som vanligt härligt skummande och stabil krona. Krämar liksom till sig... Mörk som en härlig kopp Zoega. D: Kaffe och en lätt sötma S: Söt sliskig sötma (från en positiv sida), rostat kaffe, choklad, vaniljstång, mandel, medel beska - mycket bra balans. ES: lång och skön efterbeska Som sagt väl värd att lagra men det är inte "my way" - "88" som jag fick smaka på i påskas var himmelsk. 2009 330ml flaska 20091011 Mer rökig, lite som att dra halsbloss på en cigarr