Okocim Porter

Brewed by Carlsberg Polska
Style: Baltic Porter
Warszawa, Poland

Bottled, 500ml at Pod Wawalem, Krakow. Black with tan head. Strong but slightly musty beer, there are big alcohol flavours with yeasty, fruity, sweet notes, carboardy and CO2, there is bitterness in the close. Could be better though.

Sweet, chocolate mocha covered cherry flavor and smell. Dark as hell, strong flavor that tingles the roof of your mouth, but still thin like a lager. great product.

Pours very dark brown with tan head. Aroma of toasted malts with some vinous notes. Toasted malt and chocolate flavors with a mildly bitter finish. Medium body with average carbonation.

500 ml. bottle (2009) in a shaker. Pours a very deep brown, tinged w/ copper at the edges- begins with a bubbly cream/tan head that rapidly devolves into some mossy fungus; Aroma is extremely sweet w/ some undertones of bread and a little roasted malt; flavor is far too sweet, dominating everything else w/ roasted malt again- like drinking syrup really; thin-medium bodied despite its syrupy flavor, ending on an equally sweet note. No subtlety to this beer at all- couldn’t get through 500 ml. of this.

I have had this on multiple occasions but most recently had this at a tasting at my fraternity house. Pours a deep brown color with mahogany tints around the edges. It also had a decent sized beige head that disappeared quickly. The aroma consists of a lot of bourbon, dark dried fruit, some bitter chocolate, and roasted malts. The taste has a lot of bourbon hints with some burnt wood, and roasted malts. It has a medium bodied mouthfeel and leaves a nice bitter taste in my mouth as I drink it. Overall, a very good porter!

England should be the first country which comes to mind when talking about porters, rightfully so. But, there is a country which adopted the porter with whole-hearted devotion while adding their own flavorful mark to the grande ole porter. I would be speaking of Baltic Porter of course, and the one country which launched the Baltic Porter revolution. While no blood was spilled, the Baltic Porter has faced extinction quite a few times, and is still currently in danger of becoming but a mere whisper on the breeze of time. Poland has given us many contributions to history and culture, the least of which are corny jokes, and the most of which is the deliciously endearing Baltic Porter. Okocim has been brewing their porter for generations, and it is still one of the best examples of this rich style.

She pours black and thick with a huge head crowning her royal brew below. Retreating to a soft blanket on top, I waste no time in savoring her nose next. Roasted malts greet me first while dark and bitter chocolates, coffee, milky cream, licorice, and dates wind into a crisp lemongrass zest in the end. With a pervasive lactic note, I delve into what may very well be the creamiest, milkiest porter I have ever enjoyed. Immediately her full body floats like cream across all surfaces of my mouth. Her texture and weight and fullness remind me of rich cream with faint notes of licorice and chocolate. Soft nugget chocolate and rich cream gives way to deeper notes of prunes, vanilla root, and licorice. Offering solid support is warm pumpernickel bread highlighted by burnt crust. Her finish is mild and clean with an overwhelming milk texture and presence. If I didn’t know any better, I would think I was quaffing a truly divine milk stout. Of course, the line between porter and stout is a rather blurred and fractured one, but I’ll leave that discussion for another time. As I finish my Okocim Porter, I am blissfully lost in her milky arms laced with chocolate, café lattés, licorice, prunes, and pumpernickel.

Very interesting. I was initially thrown off-kilter by my first few quaffs because she was nothing like what I expected, but expectations exist to be broken, and in this case, gratefully so. The Okocim Porter is a classic Baltic Porter and I hope that as time passes and the beer world revolves and evolves, this gem of brewing history is not forgotten. In the meantime, may I have another please? Maybe with a straw and some chocolate chip cookies…

Bottle shared with DuffmanSW. Pours a very dark brown with a quickly dissipating beige head. Aroma is pretty boozy with a load of vanilla, some roast and dark dried fruits. Flavor sugary sweet with raisins, molasses, some coffee and a ton of vanilla. Very boozy, almost reminds me of vanilla extract. Finishes sweet and a little bit cloying. Medium to full bodied with low carbonation. Better than expected!

Bottle from Mspindler.. Pours dark brown with a beige head.. Smell is boozy with some vanilla and raisin... Taste is raisins and very sweet.. Pretty smooth also... I thought this was the diamond in the rough of Spindlers random beer adventure.