Imperial Porter
Stadin Panimo
- From:
- Stadin Panimo
- Finland
- Style:
- Imperial Porter
- ABV:
- 9.5%
- Score:
- +9 ratings needed
- Avg:
- 2.86 | pDev: 0%
- Ratings:
- | reviews: 1
- Status:
- Retired
- Rated:
- May 27, 2015
- Added:
- May 27, 2015
- Wants:
- 0
- Gots:
- 0
NO SCORE
-
-
No description / notes.
Recent ratings and reviews.
Reviewed by Jugs_McGhee from Texas
2.86/5 rDev 0%
look: 2.75 | smell: 3 | taste: 2.75 | feel: 2.75 | overall: 3
2.86/5 rDev 0%
look: 2.75 | smell: 3 | taste: 2.75 | feel: 2.75 | overall: 3
Stadin Panimo "Imperial Porter." Not to be confused with their American Imperial Porter, which has a different label, or their Bourbon Imperial Porter.
BOTTLE: 33cl. Brown glass. White, purple, and black towards the bottom. Unbranded pry-off crown cap. Purchased at a Kuopio Alko for 5.98 euro. Best before: 1/1/2016. ERA #630/632.
Served chilled into a pilsner glass at low altitude in Kuopio, Finland. Reviewed live as an imperial porter per the label.
9.5% ABV. 20.5 plato. IBU 30.
No bubble show forms as it's poured.
HEAD: Reduces instantly to a floater ring - which is off-white in colour, weak, and not real creamy. The ring recedes fully within 30 seconds, leaving no lacing. This head leaves much to be desired.
BODY: Opaque cola-esque brown-black. Not the ink black you'd expect in a good imperial porter. Its schwarzbier leanings are concerning; this doesn't look robust. No yeast particles or hop sediment is visible.
Overall, this is a subpar appearance for an imperial porter, but it's generally appealing outside of style conventions, sure. I'd like to see a richer deeper head and a jet black body.
AROMA: Dark bread, schwarz malts, chocolate malt, faint plum/raisin, hints of light alcohol, and dark malts. Yeast profile isn't American; the fruitiness is almost Belgian. Maybe some fennel in there too? Attenuation should be higher. It's sugary and sweet, sure, but it lacks the dessert beer richness of the best imperial porters. Roasted barley is sorely missed, and it could do with more of a chocolate presence as well as some interesting supplementary notes like coffee or char.
Aromatic intensity is average for the style.
I find no off-notes and no hop presence (to style).
TASTE/TEXTURE: There is some roast and ash after all, but it's still insufficient. The malt backbone veers too far into bready territory, and the beer lacks the robust dark malt and chocolate malt backbone it needs, opting instead for an almost Baltic porter-like lager malt backbone which comes off weak. The weakness of the beer fails to support the ale yeast, and the beer lacks complex ale esters as a result. The strange fruit leanings (raisin, plum, raisinbread) and odd glogi-esque mulled spices distract from what should be the core - rich malts. There's ill-enough chocolate and the beer isn't sweet enough. Needs more: more roasted barley, more sweetness, more chocolate malt, more flavour. Give us smoke or coffee or heavy roast or burnt ashiness or caramel or cocoa or vanilla or...something. This is as timid an imperial porter as I've ever had, barely even fitting the bill for a regular porter. In fact, aside from the higher ABV, nothing here satisfies the criteria for this to qualify as an imperial porter.
It's too light-bodied, lacking sufficient heft and weight on the palate. Not thick enough. Even the viscous sticky syrupy porters are preferable to this; we don't drink imperial porters as a mildly sweet light treat - we want dessert brews with strength and foundation. Too clean and smooth, with an overly wet feel on the palate - even for a porter. It's not the soft silky texture you'd hope for. Thankfully, it's not real boozy or hot.
It's also not harsh, gushed, astringent, rough, scratchy, dragging or grating. Overall presence on the palate is decent, but the texture doesn't do a good job complementing the taste. It's severely undercarbonated as well, which wrongly emphasizes the flatness of the lager-like malt foundation.
The flavours aren't rich or expressive enough, and the beer comes off shallow as a result. I'm reticent to call it simple, but there's ample room for improvement in terms of intricacy and subtlety of execution.
Not a gestalt beer, but it has cohesion as well as fair balance. Built poorly overall.
To style, there are no off-notes or overt hoppy notes.
OVERALL: More a Baltic porter brewed with ale yeast than an imperial porter, Stadin Imperial Porter misses the point of the style. It's a nice dark brew by Finnish standards, but it can't compare with the best beers in the style - let alone with offerings from breweries/brewers in/from nearby Scandinavian countries (To Ol, Amager, Mikkeller, Nogne O, Evil Twin, et al.). You've just got to bring more to the table when releasing an imperial porter, and this doesn't cut it.
It's drinkable, and is a nice change from the market-dominant pale lagers so ubiquitous in Finland, but if this is the best Stadin Panimo can do, maybe I'm better off sticking to those macro-swill beers - especially when you factor in the price point. If you gave this to me at a blind tasting and told me it was a schwarzbier I'd definitely believe you after tasting it - and that's a huge problem.
C (2.86)
May 27, 2015BOTTLE: 33cl. Brown glass. White, purple, and black towards the bottom. Unbranded pry-off crown cap. Purchased at a Kuopio Alko for 5.98 euro. Best before: 1/1/2016. ERA #630/632.
Served chilled into a pilsner glass at low altitude in Kuopio, Finland. Reviewed live as an imperial porter per the label.
9.5% ABV. 20.5 plato. IBU 30.
No bubble show forms as it's poured.
HEAD: Reduces instantly to a floater ring - which is off-white in colour, weak, and not real creamy. The ring recedes fully within 30 seconds, leaving no lacing. This head leaves much to be desired.
BODY: Opaque cola-esque brown-black. Not the ink black you'd expect in a good imperial porter. Its schwarzbier leanings are concerning; this doesn't look robust. No yeast particles or hop sediment is visible.
Overall, this is a subpar appearance for an imperial porter, but it's generally appealing outside of style conventions, sure. I'd like to see a richer deeper head and a jet black body.
AROMA: Dark bread, schwarz malts, chocolate malt, faint plum/raisin, hints of light alcohol, and dark malts. Yeast profile isn't American; the fruitiness is almost Belgian. Maybe some fennel in there too? Attenuation should be higher. It's sugary and sweet, sure, but it lacks the dessert beer richness of the best imperial porters. Roasted barley is sorely missed, and it could do with more of a chocolate presence as well as some interesting supplementary notes like coffee or char.
Aromatic intensity is average for the style.
I find no off-notes and no hop presence (to style).
TASTE/TEXTURE: There is some roast and ash after all, but it's still insufficient. The malt backbone veers too far into bready territory, and the beer lacks the robust dark malt and chocolate malt backbone it needs, opting instead for an almost Baltic porter-like lager malt backbone which comes off weak. The weakness of the beer fails to support the ale yeast, and the beer lacks complex ale esters as a result. The strange fruit leanings (raisin, plum, raisinbread) and odd glogi-esque mulled spices distract from what should be the core - rich malts. There's ill-enough chocolate and the beer isn't sweet enough. Needs more: more roasted barley, more sweetness, more chocolate malt, more flavour. Give us smoke or coffee or heavy roast or burnt ashiness or caramel or cocoa or vanilla or...something. This is as timid an imperial porter as I've ever had, barely even fitting the bill for a regular porter. In fact, aside from the higher ABV, nothing here satisfies the criteria for this to qualify as an imperial porter.
It's too light-bodied, lacking sufficient heft and weight on the palate. Not thick enough. Even the viscous sticky syrupy porters are preferable to this; we don't drink imperial porters as a mildly sweet light treat - we want dessert brews with strength and foundation. Too clean and smooth, with an overly wet feel on the palate - even for a porter. It's not the soft silky texture you'd hope for. Thankfully, it's not real boozy or hot.
It's also not harsh, gushed, astringent, rough, scratchy, dragging or grating. Overall presence on the palate is decent, but the texture doesn't do a good job complementing the taste. It's severely undercarbonated as well, which wrongly emphasizes the flatness of the lager-like malt foundation.
The flavours aren't rich or expressive enough, and the beer comes off shallow as a result. I'm reticent to call it simple, but there's ample room for improvement in terms of intricacy and subtlety of execution.
Not a gestalt beer, but it has cohesion as well as fair balance. Built poorly overall.
To style, there are no off-notes or overt hoppy notes.
OVERALL: More a Baltic porter brewed with ale yeast than an imperial porter, Stadin Imperial Porter misses the point of the style. It's a nice dark brew by Finnish standards, but it can't compare with the best beers in the style - let alone with offerings from breweries/brewers in/from nearby Scandinavian countries (To Ol, Amager, Mikkeller, Nogne O, Evil Twin, et al.). You've just got to bring more to the table when releasing an imperial porter, and this doesn't cut it.
It's drinkable, and is a nice change from the market-dominant pale lagers so ubiquitous in Finland, but if this is the best Stadin Panimo can do, maybe I'm better off sticking to those macro-swill beers - especially when you factor in the price point. If you gave this to me at a blind tasting and told me it was a schwarzbier I'd definitely believe you after tasting it - and that's a huge problem.
C (2.86)
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