Hartwall Suklaa Porter

Somewhat foamy head with a strong chocolate aroma. There’s just the right amount of chocolate in the flavor, which is very much to my liking.

I was positively surprised by this beer. The previous Classic 1836 -beers have been nice, but this one hits the spot. Strong flavour of chocolate. I’m so excited of this, the first good new finnish non-lager for years (small breweries not included), so I may have overrated it a bit. Too bad it’s only a limited edition.

Courtesy of CigarCityBrew. First US based rating of this beer.

Pours dark clear amber with thin tan head. The aroma is full on chocolate spanning the range from dark to milk chocolate to go along with some roastiness and graham crackers. Very nice. Just like the aroma there is a ton of chocolatiness in the flavor from tasty dark chocolate to slightly lactose infused milk chocolate. Behind that I can sense burnt malts and faint drying malt astringency. Very nice mix of flavors.

The aroma is dusty cocoa, chocolate, sweet malt and caramel. The flavor is more of the same with some sweet vanilla and cream notes as well. Thin bodied, but tasty in an after-school glass of chocolate milk kind of way. With more body and a bit of roasted malt I think I;d be a huge fan.

A deep brown body, crimson at the edges, is topped by a foamy, light tan head. Big Hershey’s milk chocolate aroma, huge even. There’s a thin, roasty edge that falls in step with the chocolate and bit of caramel but this is still entirely about the chocolate several minutes in. Fair sweetness up front with a mild acidity towards the end and a hint of roasty bitterness. The flavour is a dead ringer for tootsie roll pops, cool! Seductively, velvety texture on a medium body with just enough carbonation to keep the sweetness from building. This certainly is a one-trick-pony but it’s clean and it does that one trick pretty well. 50cl can, bbe 07/2008.