Harpoon Leviathan Baltic Porter

Brewed by Harpoon Brewery
Style: Baltic Porter
Boston, Massachusetts USA

Bottle. Pours brown with a tan head. Aroma of roasted chocolate and malt. Solid flavor with a full body. Chocolate is dominate and slightly bitter. Great brew.

Pours near black with reddish hues and a thin tan head. Notes of toffee, dark bread, roasted sugars, rum, and spice. Full to thick bodied with moderate carbonation. This beer is still very intense, it would likely benefit from at least a few months of aging.

An almost black pour with very little head but a light off white lace. Aroma is light chocolate, burnt coffee, and a hint of peat. Flavor is more chocolate, with the burnt coffee. Nice medium full bodied beer with smooth creamy mouthfeel. Very nice. A just right warmth.

12oz bottle. Wow, this is surprisingly solid. Pours a clear deep dark brown red that actually settles to a very shinny solid reflective near black with a big foamy tan head that stays pretty frothy slightly creamy. Well balanced aroma of robust roast and dark fruits, hint of berries, some creamy vanilla, subtle hint of anise, possibly creamy oats, smooth and not lacking complexity. Flavor follows, fairly hot, slightly grassy fruity, some dark chocolate and roast, subtle ash blends with the alcohol, finishing boozy with a bit of a vanilla kick, lingering boozy aftertaste. Medium/full bodied, creamy with nice fine sparkling carbonation, smooth. Pretty nice. Well.... gah the booziness is really detracting from what is otherwise an outstanding beer.

12 oz. bottle. Very dark brown, almost pitch black body with gray-white head. Head doesn’t last for long. Aroma of chocolate malt, spices, slight banana, vanilla. A fruity porter, spicy immediately present, tasting of chocolate and bananas throughout, with a lingering chocolaty finish. Not too syrupy but definitely has some thickness to it. Good unique porter, i liiiike.

Very drinkable baltic porter. A bit of the BP edge, but mostly taste closer to a RIS with chocolate malting. Pours dark, smells malty.

12oz bottle poured into a tulip. Pours a dark, dark brown that’s nearly black in the glass underneath a big creamy tan head that shows very good retention and lacing. The aroma is dominated by dark roasted malts and lots of milk chocolate. It’s pretty sweet for the style and has hints of roasted coffee. It smells almost like a mocha with a shot of espresso. The taste is also dominated by the roasted dark malts and has a little more coffee than the aroma. There are definitely hints of lactose and milk chocolate. The mouthfeel is medium bodied and well carbonated and it’s fairly smooth and less roasty than I was expecting in the finish. This is a very good beer from Harpoon but it’s not at the top of my list of porters as the lactose is a little out of place in the taste and the body probably doesn’t stack up to the best in the style. Still, a good beer.

12oz Bottle. Wonderful deep roast aroma, deepened with pilsner malt mineral qualities and sweet fig jam. Pours dark, but clear red-mahogany, with a swirl and lick of tan head. Flavor plays a bit lighter. The pils malt jumps forward and roasts take a backseat to generic stout-like alcoholic, warm cream, and brown sugar. Generally, a very generic strong beer flavor. Texture is nice, covering the mouth, but laying light and giving a rising sense. Alcohols aren’t harsh, but add complexity. This beer could use some more heft though, in thickness and darkness. I like the pils lager character but want more oily blackness. Too pale, too bland, and gets a little acrid in the end. Thanks so much Sean!