Beer Style Guide: Get to know Baltic Porter with Em Sauter
Baltic Porter is a great story in how beer evolves and changes when put into a new environment. In the 18th century, porters were all the rage in England and were exported abroad, especially in the area around the Baltic Sea, Poland, Sweden and Russia where they became quite popular. This love of porters begat many new beer styles including the Baltic Porter and its similar cousin, the Russian Imperial Stout. The local Baltic state breweries seized upon this dark beer trend but adapted it to fit their brewing techniques. Most of the breweries in that region were brewing lagers so they adapted the porter to a higher ABV, cold conditioned beer using their lager yeast and hence, the Baltic Porter was born. These styles are still quite popular, especially in Poland where they are made by breweries large and small.
Baltic Porters can be brewed a variety of ways with a darker base malt like Vienna or Munich along with debittered roasted malts to keep the heavy roast character low. You want smoothness and complexity, not acrid or charcoal. The hopping regimen of continental hop varieties is kept low and now, in modern times, can be brewed with ale yeast at cold temperatures or with lager yeast and then cold conditioned for a clean smoothness.
Tasting Notes
The Baltic Porter has intense flavors of plum, sherry, raisin, licorice and molasses. The color can have a lovely deep ruby highlight that makes for a beautiful presentation when poured into a glass.
Food Pairing
I love Baltic Porters in winter. I live in a town with a large Polish population so Baltic Porters are easy to come by, very reasonably priced and work well with a delicious plate of savory potato and cheese pierogies smothered with bacon, onions and sour cream. Baltic Porters are great with bone warming meals like beef stew (also great to cook with!) or rich soups. And the high alcohol and flavors work great at the end of the meal with decadent chocolate or caramel desserts.
Beers to Try
Massachusetts based lager brewery Jack’s Abby brews a variety of styles of their Baltic Porter. It can be sold as is in its traditional form or in a variety of barrels and flavors. Their version flavored like Mexican mole (with cinnamon, chili and cocoa nibs) aged in a bourbon barrel is my favorite.
One of the easiest Baltic Por to procure, Polish giant brewery Zywiec’s Baltic Porter is a beefy 9.5% and is very affordable at under $3 for a 500mL bottle. We stock up a few bottles of this in the fridge during big snowstorms.
The dark beer specialists of North Carolina brew a stellar Baltic Porter in a six pack, of course. Grab a sixer around Christmastime as that is when the beer is released and leave it in the fridge for times when you just want something lovely, dark and deep. Baltic Porters age well.