Lager or Ale? Either Way It’s Baltic Bliss…

Baltic Porter; a style that bends the rules. Lager yeast fermented at a ale temperatures creates a delicious full flavored high-gravity beer with a crisp lager finish.

London Porters originated in the early 1700’s as a heavy brown beer. The British market lost interest throughout the centuries until the 1900’s. In the meantime this beer style made its way to the Baltic countries where they have since evolved into higher gravity black beers. These days, every Baltic country brews its own Baltic style Porter. This includes the countries of Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Denmark and Sweden. It was originally introduced from Britain using top-fermenting techniques (ale), but since many of the large breweries in the cooler northern countries brewed lagers, the style is now almost always brewed by bottom-fermentation (lager). This creates a rich, full bodied beer with toffee and roasted malt flavors and a surprising light finish. Now, I’m not going to say it tastes as light as a Heineken, but it doesn’t taste heavy like Guinness either.

One of my new favorite Baltic Porters is Victory’s Baltic Thunder. They do their best to accurately represent an authentic Baltic Porter. An ABV of 8.5% keeps it true to style. Smooth and very drinkable with low bitterness and slightly sweet in character, this new release from Victory will be available year round. $6.25 for a 22 oz bottle.

Decanted is located at 1410 Pine Ridge Rd in Naples, FL. For more information and online ordering, visit http://www.decantedwines.com