Yet another retired Hartwall product. Maybe they should start concentrating rather than bringing out new products every month. This was good tho. But was it porter, scwharzbier or dunkel?

Almost black, hints of red in color. Beige head lasted nicely. Sweet roasted aroma with some metallic notes in there, mild aroma indeed. Flavor is stronger tha aroma, starts with some roasted coffee and ends with some vineous and hoppy tones. Body is thin to medium, carbonation comes up in the end, if this had a fuller body carbonation wouldn’t be needed but with here it is ok. Not very traditional porter, still nice try from Hartwall.

Bottled (BB 05/2005)
Dark portwine ruby with a good brownish head. Light roasted and malty aroma. Good malty body, slightly roasted flavor. Harsh malty aftertaste. Similar to Hartwall’s Dark Lager but has more malts and less roast.

(Bottled) Dark, clear, reddish color with a medium, beige head. Slightly roasted, quite malty, but slightly thin aroma with some hops, too. Malty, sweetish and moderately hoppy rye-pudding flavor. Somewhat similar to a typical Finnish home-brew (kotikalja). Quite thin and carbonated, medium-bodied and quite sugary palate. A decent brew, but a disappointment for those who expect to taste a real porter.

The first I thought of when I tasted this beer was Checz dark lagers and German scwartzbier. One can feel a hint of coffee in the taste, and a small bitterness from the hops. Due to alcohol policy in Finland this beer is brewed so that is has 4,5% alcohol, so that it can be sold in normal supermarkets. One can argue if this beer really is a porter when it’s bottom-fermented.