brew

Baltic Bitterness

The big, bad brute of the porter family has a lengthy list of grains starting with 9.75 pounds of Munich and 5.75 pounds of pilsner – either could be a base malt in its own right in smaller recipes. Special B and Caramel 60 are both 6.5 ounces, Carafa II is 5 ounces, and chocolate malt is the last 3 ounces. A whole lot of Saaz balanced out all that malt with 2.7 ounces at the sixty minute start mark and another ounce with fifteen minutes to go. Unlike the other porters this one called for a lager yeast. It was one of our rare successes with SafLager and imprecise fermentation temperature control.

The Baltic Porter’s tan head dissipates rapidly perhaps as a function of age. There’s still plenty of body and the lighter remaining carb works nicely with the style. The aroma is sweet and grainy with a little roasted barley. That roastiness comes through boldly in the flavor along with a bit of coffee. It’s actually more on the bitter side. Unlike other malt oriented brews, the darker roast flavors are bitter themselves and combine with the hopped bitterness rather than offsetting the hops like caramel or toffee malts. I like its coherency. Everything works together from start to finish instead of having different notes take turns.