Hämarik
Põhjala Brewery & Tap Room

Copenhagen 18/8 2019. 33 cl bottle from Mikkeller Web-shop. Hazy colors going from Blue to Orange on the label.

Pours opaque dark brown with a small dark, beige head. Stable. Settles as thin rim of foam running along and clinging to the side of the glass. Moderate lacing.

Aroma is potent, dark and sweet with bitter coffee notes. Brown sugar, molasses, bitter coffee, dark chocolate, leather, tobacco.

Light carbonation. Thick, viscous, soft, creamy, sticky, almost flat texture.

Flavor is heavy sweet followed by a quite strong Coffee infused bitterness. Aftertaste is potent and sweet. Lingering for a day or two.

Pohjala in collaboration with Other Half - does what they do best: Produce a nice heavy, thick Baltic Porter with more than one dimension to offer. Good one.

Pours a pitch black color with a small top off beige head that dissolves quickly.
Aroma is of roasted malts, vanilla, coffee, dark chocolate and licorice.
The taste is roasted and sweet with strong notes of burned coffee beans, vanilla and dark bitter chocolate. The roasted flavour is there to the end allong with some slight bitterness in the finish. Long and strong aftertaste. The alcohol is masked really nice in the flavour. Full bodied with a medium carbonation. Creamy and oily mouthfeel.
A really delicious example of a baltic porter.

 

 

 

Got this one from the Duvel guy in Utrecht

From a bottle into a snifter
Collaboration with Other Half
Imperial Baltic porter brewed with rye malt, Tahitian vanilla beans, and Brazilian coffee

APPEARANCE: Black pour yields a two finger, medium looking, fizzy and slightly foamy tan head with okay retention. Black body with lots of carbonation evident. Head recedes to a thick, full cap. Swirly wisp and ring remain leaving some falling dots of lacing down the glass as it empties.

SMELL: Definite leather and tobacco aromas, charred notes, some light vanilla cream, hints of roasted coffee and some alcohol.

TASTE: Leather, tobacco, anise flavors, some vanilla cream and alcohol up front. More booze at the swallow, moving into a bold finish of leather and tar, lots of tobacco and ash flavors, some burnt malts, light vanilla and milk chocolate flavors, a touch of bitter coffee and some solid alcohol linger on the palate. Very bold and flavorful.

PALATE: Fuller body and medium levels of carbonation. Creamy on the palate, slick, goes down fine with a bit of a scratch at the swallow and finishes mouth-coating. Decent heat lingers.

OVERALL: This doesn’t quite live up to the billing. The vanilla additions are mute at best and the coffee character is more-or-less non-existent. I can imagine some coffee in there but that might just be my imagination. That said, the base beer is excellent. It’s certainly a tobacco forward, leather bound Baltic porter in the European style. That’s excellent. The adjuncts were a non-starter, which makes it harder to score. I’ll just forget the adjuncts were even mentioned and score accordingly. Cheers!

Pitch black, mocha head

The rye brings some spicy notes and a smooth mouthfeel. The coffee and vanilla are there but never overwhelms the whole thing.
A really spicy cake-like baltic porter

 

L: Jet black color, quarter finger brown head, messy lacing, light carbonation.

S: Chocolate, coffee, lots of alcohol.

T: Lots of alcohol, sweet. I mean, the alcohol is so prevalent, it covers everything else.

F: Medium bodied, lots of flavor covered by insane alcohol level.

O: This beer is way off due to hyperalcoholization.

 

 

 

Black color with brown head, aroma of roasted malts, coffee and chocolate, taste of roasted malts, black chocolate, coffee and vanilla, full body, soft carbonation.