Veles Baltic Porter
Firehouse Grill & Brewery

Thank you for the bottle sample Steve!

Appearance: Dark brown, nearly black color, light tan head tops things off. Medium sized bubbles, good retention, not much lacing. Looks good.

Smell: I'm getting a pretty complex aroma. Some caramel and cocoa, with some roast, even some smoke elements. A bit of dark fruit here too like plums and and slight cherries.

Taste: Dark caramel, chocolate, plum, raisin, yogurt, and some smoke that kind of masks things up a bit. I kind of dig the smoke element I am getting, even though it seems a bit odd. Complex for sure, pretty good stuff. Not getting much hop flavor though for balance.

Mouthfeel is fairly heavy, but has good carbonation. Head texture is good.

Overall this is a nice Baltic Porter. I haven't had many to compare this to others, but I liked the extra complexity over a normal porter. I would have liked a little more hop character to balance things out a bit, but perhaps that isn't really in the Baltic Porter style. Maybe a little bit of heat near the end but it's not holding the drinkability back. Nice work Steve.

On tap at Toad in the Hole, Santa Rosa, during their real ale night focusing on this brewery. This is a very good Baltic porter, creamy with good character and flavour.

Essentially black, it has a medium, creamy tan head, steadily shrinking to a foamy ring and leaving some nice lace with a couple good rings.

The aroma is muted but good with subtle, faintly perfumy licorice, roasted malt, chocolate.

The taste is creamy light mocha with caramelised roasted malt, very malty in the way a malted milkshake is, with hints of licorice, dark toast, chocolate, and raisiny alcohol. It has a rich, creamy feel, a bit frothy, not too oily, with some liveliness.