Opened a homebrewed Baltic Porter ("Blackheart") tonight that I bottled last year on April 6th and I wanted to see how it held up with one year plus of age under the belt. A couple of quick specs on the Balt-Port, 8.5% ABV, brewed with California Lager Yeast fermented at room temps, and German Tradition hops for flavor and aroma. Here goes in HolzBrew LSD (not the drugs, but look, smell, drink) review fashion:
Look: As you can see above from the shoddy cell phone picture, this mother is dark as night. No sunlight penetrates it's murky depths. An average-sized deep tan lacing clings to the side of the glass.
Smell: Major maple, caramel, and toffee aroma, not much in the way of hop aroma
Drink: Lots of flavors up front, coffee, toasty malts, a little chocolate, caramel, and even a little, dare I say, root beer flavor. Hop bitterness jumps in through the middle and back end to help round this off the palate and avoid a cloying sweet after taste. No major flavor from the hops other than some needed bitterness to balance out the malt. Stickiness on the lips.
I don't rate my own beers on the academic scale, but I enjoyed this one all the way through. I've got one 12oz. and a 22oz. of this batch left, not sure if it will make it another year.
Don't forget about the big dark beers during the summertime.
Once you go black...
HolzBrew
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