Koff Porter

Brewed by Sinebrychoff (Carlsberg)
Style: Baltic Porter
Kerava, Finland

The first beer I ever had. I still drink it more often than any other beer because it's the only really great beer made in Finland (read: the only really great beer you can get for a reasonable price in this country). It tastes the best when it's room temperature or even a bit warmer.

I just smiled when I pour this one. Looked like iodine and the froth rose like a balloon filled with chocolate ice cream. Hung there all rocky w/ a lingering fluffy lace. Beautiful! Aromas of sweet roasted malt. Medium nectar w/ mild carbonation creating a silky texture. A strong roast component kicks in pushing flavors of dark cocoa, coffee, leather. A mellow hop factors in on the end that lends a nice balanced bitterness to it. The finish s bittered well w/ lingering charcoal. Not sweet at all ending w/ a slight lactose souring. .

This is a rich, delicious, smooth, and silky Baltic Porter, coming in at a warming 7.2% abv and makes the perfect beer to match with a rich desert, or to enjoy as a night cap. Koff Porter pours to a beautiful, deep ebony color with a thick and creamy tan head, and a moderate amount of carbonation. The nose on this beer is fantastic with big aromas of dark chocolate, coffee, licorice, and peppery alcohol. The palate is rich and full with big dark malt, chocolate, slight roast, licorice, and coffee flavors on a silky smooth, polished body. Koff Porter finishes with more of those big chocolate and coffee notes, then ends with a dry roast and peppery alcohol finish that lingers. This is a world class example of Baltic Porter, one of the best in the style, and one loved by beer geeks world wide, including former presidents. This beer is best suited for cold winter months as a winter warmer, but is also the perfect beer to match with a rich, chocolate desert, and would make an idea after dinner drink or night cap. It retails in good beer markets for about $2.50-$3 a 11.2 oz or 33 cl bottle, and is well worth the price. If you can find this beer in your market, seek it out, and enjoy a world class beer from Finland.

This Baltic poter is outstanding, with rich, complex flavour and texture, yet high drinkability. Basically black, it has a very large, rich, frothy light brown head that shrinks only slowly to a permanent, thin, foamy top and rich, frothy lace. The aroma is mild wine, chocolate, prunes, toast. Although with firm, complex elements, it’s somewhat subdued. The taste is rich, complex, smooth and clean. All flavours, sweetness and bitterness are beautifully balanced with complex taste of leaves, chocolate, dark toasted brown bread, prunes, a hint of port, some raisin, black pepper, the latter stronger in the finish, with an increasing taste of black coffee condensed with brown sugar that is stronger by the end. It is rather dry throughout, not too bitter or sweet. In the middle, it has a definite but light sweetness and light but slightly stronger bitterness right at the finish, but for most of the time, up front and in the final finish and aftertaste, it is mostly dry, clean, and leafy.

Wow!!! Pours like a dream. Big foamy chocolatey dark tan head, with some lace. Nose is incredibly aromatic - roasty, dark fruit, dark chocolate, burnt sugar ... enticing. Flavor is all of that and more. Only a hint of the power behind it. Luscious body. Ultra black opaque. A benchmark baltic porter. Having this one sitting at the tables by the big windows facing 4th Street in Bodega Brew Pub, La Crosse.

This is a great just because there are no flaws at all in this beer. It is so smooth, so dark, and so rich that words cannot even describe. This is one of my favorite beers.

This was bottled in 1997. I don’t think I’ve had a beer nearly this old before. It’s delightful. Cocoa aroma, delicious-looking head, blacker ’n a steer’s tookus. Medium to thin body made up for by strong doppelbocky, Scotch-aley malt presence, with a combination of sweet and smoky finish. Strong finish has flavor particles crisply dancing on the tongue. (Medium-thin body actually works well on this - moving the palate score from 4 to 5.) I’ll gladly have another. Worth seeking out. Subsequent tastings might make this come down some, but right now it’s right up there.

I love the malt flavor of Weltenburger Asam-Back. This is the closest I’ve seen a beer come to that. Scarily close.

I think I may come to really love this style.

very dark color (black as night.) coffee smell when bottle was opened, coffee smell got stronger once in the glass. very iffy taste at first, then a very pleasent taste after it warmed up a bit. a very tasty porter. shocked that something from finland tasted that good. not a cheap bottle eather(but well worth the money.