Smuttynose Baltic Porter

Brewed by Smuttynose Brewing Company
Style: Baltic Porter
Portsmouth, New Hampshire USA

Pleasant aromas and flavors make this a solid porter. Some roasted flavors, a little sweetness, and overall well balanced.

Poured jet black with a thick, tan head and plenty of lacing throughout the glass. Strong coffee, chocolate and roasted malt in the nose. Medium bodied with a smooth mouthfeel and perfect carbonation. Taste is sweet with lots of coffee notes, roasted malt, dark fruit and dark chocolate. Creamy, dry, bitter finish. Excellent!

Bottle. Pours a syrupy dark, coffee color with a light tan head. Aromas of fresh roasted coffee and dark chocolate immediately apparent. Analogous taste with a sweet edge. Heavily bodied. Very good, but hits the guts like lead. Very potent. Good stuff.

(bomber from j12601). Black color. Large tan head which is mostly diminishing. Aroma and flavor of alcohol, coffee, and very light fruit. Avg duration. Light alcohol finish. Slick texture. Soft carbonation. Spare lacing.

This one caught me off guard. I took a sip and, without anyone else in the room, said "Wow". Thought I had already rated this but was mistaken. Visually, this one is about as close to midnight as a porter can be with a latte colored head that leaves Rorschach inkblot-test lacing. I watched as a massive bubble popped, leaving a huge crater in the foam; staying 30+ seconds before melding into the rest of the froth. The aroma is all cocoa, molasses, and dark fruit. The flavor shows vanilla, chocolate, brown sugar, and molasses. Medium mouthfeel bordering viscous. A very good beer.

Sampled from a 22 oz brown bottle this beer poured thick, black and had a large dark brown head that lingered. The aroma was sweet and toasty with notes of cocoa, raisin and plum. The flavor was toasty and roasty malts, dry cocoa, moderate floral hop bitterness and interesting notes of plum, cherry, port wine, wood, coffee and bourbon. The finish was long and dry with cocoa and raisin lingering. Thick and full bodied. The alcohol was fairly well hidden. Excellent.

22 oz. bottle courtesy of j12601. I have been wanting to try this for some time as it is one of my favorite styles. This pours very dark brown in color with a medium tan head. The aroma is deep roasted malts, rich chocolate, black coffee notes, and dark fruits. The flavor is more heavily roasted malt goodness, rich chocolate, dark fruits (raisins), molassess all working together nicely. At times, the alcohol makes itself known but not in a distracting way. There is a hint of acidity that adds a little bite. Medium full bodied with a smooth texture that makes for a nice beer to have with the cooler temps we have tonight. This lived up to my expectations and am happy I have a couple more to enjoy.

THOUGHTS: Very nice. It went down easy for something this bit. One of the better Baltic Porters I’ve had, but then again I can’t think of many bad one either. TECHNICAL: Bottle. Poured dark brown, that was a nearly opaque black in the glass with an average, tan head that mostly diminished. The aroma was moderate to heavy roasted malt, coffee and chocolate syrupy; along with raisin, prune, cherry, soy sauce and dark chocolate cherry cordials. The initial flavor was sweet, bitter and a little acidic; while the finish was very sweet, rather bitter and acidic with an average to almost short duration. There was chocolate syrupy, dark chocolate, roasted malt, coffee, prune, raisin, cherry and dark chocolate cherry cordials. The full body was oily with fizzy carbonation and a light astringent and light to moderate alcoholic finish.