Zywiec Porter

Brewed by Bracki Browar Zamkowy (Zywiec Heineken)
Style: Baltic Porter
Cieszyn, Poland

Pours a near black colour with a small, but sturdy tan head. The aroma is strait forward, with plenty of nuts, caramel, vanilla and dried fruits. The flavour is nice mid-palate, but an atringent bitterness, like that of baker’s cocoa and aluminum. It is possible I may be drinking an infected bottle, because the finish is bitter like penicilin. Flavours of rich caramel, dark fruits and roasted malt are trampled by an offensive, harshly bitter finish. The mouthfeel is velvety smooth and perfectly carbonated, making it quite drinkable despite the overly bitter finish and the booze is well hidden. I think I need to try this one again.

This has a dark brown color with a thick tan head that thined out over time and left some nice laceing along the sides of the glass. As i smelt it the aroma bombarded my nose with an intence nuttyness followed by roasted coffee and caramel malt. Even thogh the coffee was pleasing to the nose the nuts overwelmed the smell. As i took a sip the beer had a good initial hop bitterness with a coffee and chocolate coating on the sides of my tounge and mouth. The finish was nice and creamy and it resembled a candy bar.

Pours fairly thick dark brown with a finger of tan head. Aroma of sweet caramel, slight roastiness, pilsner malts, slight sour yeastiness, toffee, plums. Flavor is bready with bitter burnt malts and a nice bit of dark fruit as it warms. Palate is relatively thick and sticky. I do taste a bit of metal in the flavor, but not enough to ruin the experience for me.

500mL bottle, gift from my Polish AuPair. Pours dark with tan head. aroma is slightly sweet with toffee and roasted malt. mouthful is full of bitter sweet goodness. has nice robust roasted malt with cocoa and a bitter finnish. Very nice robust porter

Firstly Rated: 25 November 2006. 500ml bottle brown but had this many times on tap at "Piwiarnia Żywiecka" - Brewery’s Pub in Żywiec town. On tap version is better, more fresh, more drinkeable and more fruity with better pronounced flavour and aroma. Appearance: Head is nice, thick, frothy, medium, fudge-brown, with decent lacing. Body almost black, deep dark red- brown in hue where light is able to come through it. Body is practically full and the wort percentage content is 22% what is the highest ammount of wort of all Polish beer making it really thick with the impression that you can bite it rather than drink it. Carbonation visually is soft to medium. Aroma: dark bread, Munich malt, burned grains (being also available for degustation in the brewery),very nice ’porter’ aroma, not ofensive, alcohol as for its 9,5 % is felt but in a very positive and pleasant way, being very well balanced with the strong woody-nutty accents, with the addition of decent cherries and some accents of prune or even plum in tap version. The taste is full and fulfilling all your needs. So bready that It seems you can bite it. Good quality mountain water base, first smooth then some alcohol warmth on palate and at the end there comes the bitterness that results from roastiness and gentle aromatic hoppy nose. The best beer in Poland according to me and according to Rate Beer’s list of the best beer by country (excluding Meads). Best Baltic Porter I’ve had so far. The most commonly available porter so far in Poland.

I was given this beer as a gift from a friend who is from Poland and strongly recommended this beer. It poured very dark with a tan head. I found it to sit very heavy in my stomach and was very full after finishing it.

From a 500mL Bottle. Mostly opaque, dark black colored pour with a tight bubbled head of whipped cappucino tan. Aromas of molasses, unsweetened chocolate, and a distinctly floral hop spice. A touch of freshly sliced anise root. Wonderfully dark and spicy without much roast character. Medium full bodied, softly carbonated mouthfeel with a creamy texture. Flavors of dark chocolate and prune flesh comes out first on the palate, followed by some mild roast coffee and burned maple. Lots of really dark malt flavors, much roastier than the nose suggests, but still restrained enough to be a convincing b-porter. More hop flavors present on the backend, although they have much more of a grapefruity, west coast US character than the nose suggested. Molasses and lightly smoked jerky. Smooth coffee and nutty, almost grapey, distinct munich malt flavors come through. A fabulous example of a baltic porter. I had a bad bottle of this beer a couple of weeks ago that experienced the metallic flavor mentioned in others’ rates, but this bottle is perfect.

Good beer, great for the style, but there’s one major flaw that consumes me when I drink it. Pours a wonderful black with a smallish off-white head. Aroma of coffee and smoldering firewood. Palate is thick and inviting, full, and leaves a nice film on the tongue. Flavor is of dark wood, floral hops, bitter chocolate, and then, out of nowhere, I get the unmistakable flavor of oxidized metal. That metallic finish ruined the whole experience. I wish I could shut off my taste buds just before the end of the flavor experience. Maybe it was a bad bottle; if so, I’ll rerate.