Baltic Porter

Judging by my rating this is not a very popular style but when done is great. I would like to try more but it seems hard to find in provincial England. Is this true elsewhere? I’d happily go on a Baltic Porter stroll.

Go to Eastern Europe or Framingham, Massachusetts… popular in both those places. Framingham just has a brewery that put out many iterations of the style. All over Russia, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, the style can be found everywhere. Craft Brewers in Russia make a number of sophisticated examples.

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I can recommend https://ebrowarium.pl as a great source for Polish baltic porters.

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They’re all over Poland. eBrowarium is great if you don’t feel like going to the country itself, but I strongly recommend visiting Kraków and Warszawa as the bars in these cities are truly world-class and generally featuring dozens of Polish-only tap lists. We’re also increasingly getting away from only serving beers in large sizes: bars like Multi Qlti or Weźże Krafta have two dozen taps and sell beers in 15cl glasses for as little as 4zł (1€).

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Had this one recently, from Poland. I thought it was awesome.

https://www.ratebeer.com/beer/fortuna-komes-porter-baltycki/72541/

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I’m glad to hear about moving away from large sizes for Baltic porters… But I have to admit, I liked the naughty feeling in Warsaw of ordering one and getting a full half-liter.

Really like the stuff from Kormoran.

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Don’t worry; you can still get a half-litre of Imperator Bałtycki if you really want to :laughing:

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plenty of them in the US, but not too many in breweries regular line ups. My recent favorite was from Bavarian Bierhaus in Milwaukee, WI, USA. 8% or so, and just nailed. Does everyone lager them? That is a entirely different question.

Well I hope to get to Boston in 2018 so I need only spend a wild weekend in Framingham to make work a pleasure. Thanks for the tip.

Fortunately I have friends from Krakow so this will give me entertainment while they do high culture. And I will appreciate the smaller measures. Thanks for the tip.

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So far it seems that the best way to enjoy Baltic porter is to travel. Why is it relatively scarce in the UK? We have porters. And hard-working and sometimes extremely attractive Poles. If we can brew APA, NEPA, why not BP?

You might be able to find a few on beersofeurope.co.uk.

I know they sell Baltika 6 (https://www.ratebeer.com/beer/baltika-6-porter/6110/). It’s pretty decent (especially considering who makes it).

A brief scan of their Polish beer page shows that they have this one, too: https://www.ratebeer.com/beer/amber-grand-imperial-porter/85439/. They may stock some US-made Baltic Porters as well.

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Happy to help! Kraków has become a world-class city for craft beer in extremely short order, and that’s on top of being a city full of great restaurants. Just make sure you stay longer than a couple of days to visit all the good spots :slight_smile:

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Considering how many Eastern European shops there are it’s rare to find something that’s not pale or strong lager. Had a Romanian Dunkel Bock and then Latvian/Lithuanian Hefe and Kvass.

Polish Baltic Porters are world class, and pretty much define the style now.

Like all styles, it’s a hard one to precisely and accurately define, as it has migrated geographically, and become modified in method/taste, over the last 100 years or so.

Patching together snippets from various sources, it seems like it was a genuine attempt to make a drink like the imperial stouts, but adapted to locally familiar techniques. The closer (geographically/chronologically) you get to the historical impies, the closer the mimicry. Finland’s Koff Porter (pre-mid-2000s in particular) being pretty much spot on, but Tomislav being, ahem, a continent’s height away (but still a very tasty strong dark lager). Poland’s between the two, which is why it’s easy to pick it as the place that now defines the style, similar enough to recognise, but different enough to be distinct.

Do none of the cheap airlines fly to Poland? It’s well worth a trip, it’s a fantastic beer country - north or south, it doesn’t really matter, there’s plenty of good stuff in all big towns. They lay on a pretty good festival too, down in Zywiec. Do it!

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Well if I can muster the right company, Poland will see me soon. But given the readiness with which we have adopted American styles, I don’t understand why we have left Baltic Porter to others. If we must leave the EU, lets revive the Hanseatic League!

All of the major ones do. And the full-service airlines really aren’t that expensive to fly there either if you plan in advance.

Zywieck and Okacim were the 2 I fell in love with. A couple of US versions were good, including the Alaskan.

That is awesome to hear. I will be in Krakow probably around May! Really looking Forward to it.

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I think I may ask for commission from the Krakow tourist bureau…
But only when I visit.