Baltika #4 Original (Dark)
Baltika Breweries

Baltika #4 Original (Dark)Baltika #4 Original (Dark)
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From:
Baltika Breweries
 
Russia
Style:
European Dark Lager
Ranked #53
ABV:
5.6%
Score:
78
Ranked #27,042
Avg:
3.39 | pDev: 14.45%
Reviews:
296
Ratings:
472
Status:
Active
Rated:
Oct 02, 2023
Added:
Apr 13, 2002
Wants:
  14
Gots:
  44
No description / notes.
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Ratings by TheLiterati:
Photo of TheLiterati
Reviewed by TheLiterati from California

3.67/5  rDev +8.3%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.5
Pours a nice reddish brown. Color is quite attractive, as is the aroma: sweet with hints of caramel, but not syrupy.

The bottle promises a “harmonious bread snack and caramel aroma,” and it’s pretty close to exactly that. Has a nice effervescence, slightly bubbly mouthfeel, with a thin creamy head.

The taste goes hand in hand with the aroma, with a hint of caramel.

Drinkable. I could easily enjoy another.
Aug 17, 2006
More User Ratings:
 
Rated: 3.39 by AndyGG from California

Oct 02, 2023
Photo of Dred_Verone
Reviewed by Dred_Verone

5/5  rDev +47.5%
look: 5 | smell: 5 | taste: 5 | feel: 5 | overall: 5
One of the best beers I've had. I'm not a fan of the most of the domestics beers such as Budlight, Miller, Michelob, etc (can't stand IPAs). With Baltika 4, I really love the dark ember color. The taste is rich, with slightly smoky, sweet and, barley/malt taste.
Apr 21, 2023
Photo of JZH1000
Reviewed by JZH1000 from Colorado

3.58/5  rDev +5.6%
look: 3.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.25 | overall: 3.5
Poured from a 15.89fl Oz bottle into a pils glass. Bottle is pretty old, was bottled in 2020.

The look is a dark murky brown. It's hazy and dark, but obviously brown. Decent 1 finger head on the pour but it dissapated relatively quickly. The murkiness is throwing me off a bit, but we'll see.

Smell is strong in the malts which is boosting my hopes. Smells a bit like a nut brown, but with lager qualities. Sweet biscuits and caramels maybe a bit of hops but they are hard to really pick up.

Taste is more dry than the smell with a slight bitterness mostly from roasted malts. The lager yeast is present for sure after the malts. Maybe some slight off taste in the yeasty part of the flavor. After that it dissappears pretty quickly. Easy to drink though.

Feel is relatively thin but not too watery. Head does come back a bit on each sip adding to the mouthfeel, but still could use a bit of improvement. Dark but still a summery beer.

Overall pretty good for the russian equivalent of a macro brew. Pretty malty, but still with some cheaper lager characteristics. This is a review of an old bottle too, so I'm sure it's better fresh. I'd give this one a shot for the novelty and it's still pretty good.
Feb 09, 2022
 
Rated: 3.53 by LesDewitt4beer from Minnesota

Nov 03, 2021
Photo of BeerAndGasMasks
Reviewed by BeerAndGasMasks from Virginia

3.32/5  rDev -2.1%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 3.25 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.25
From the bottle, it pours a clear mahogany with a modest, soon diminishing, off-white head. The scent is caramel and malt. The taste is the same: caramel forward, a touch malty, not overly sweet, with a smooth feel and odd aftertaste.
Jun 19, 2021
Photo of Sigmund
Reviewed by Sigmund from Norway

3.3/5  rDev -2.7%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.25 | feel: 3 | overall: 3.25
500 ml bottle, courtesy of Cardinal Pub & Bar, Stavanger. ABV is 5.6%. Copper coloured beer with a decent beige head. Interesting aroma of lightly roasted malts, caramel and fruit. The flavour is very malty and sweet (the maltose syrup shows its presence), but there is also some fruitiness. Plenty of caramel, hints of rye bread. Low bitterness. A bit too much sweetness for me, but definitely drinkable.
May 03, 2021
 
Rated: 3.09 by Skabiski from Maryland

May 01, 2021
 
Rated: 4.5 by jeschaefer from Texas

Nov 05, 2020
Photo of Greywulfken
Reviewed by Greywulfken from New York

3.64/5  rDev +7.4%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4
Pretty run of the mill perhaps as such beers go but there is also absolutely nothing really wrong with this beer - got some caramel maltiness and a bit of toast and nut and the barest hint of a rye-like element - drinks easy enough - little bit of tack and shellac - not particularly bitter or sweet - balanced guess you'd say - dug it...
Oct 10, 2020
 
Rated: 3.26 by DvdP from Netherlands

Oct 06, 2020
Photo of Smakawhat
Reviewed by Smakawhat from Maryland

3.95/5  rDev +16.5%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 4
Poured from the bottle into a pokal glass.

Real nice dark copper red body, with these excellent mahogany red edges on the sides. Light khaki head of about two fingers, soft and foamy, with a quick simple settling down to a nice collar and whispy thin top.

Aroma is a lot like a dunkelweizen. Large banana like ester on the nose, even a little faint matching clove to go with it, but with not much of the large depth and considerably more clean. It's quite a neat contrast as it's lager like dunkelweizen on the nose or something. There's a bit of muddy like earthy dirt to this also.

Palate is interesting. There's a bit of noticeable weakness in mouthfeel, there's a wetness to this beer but there's still some suprising amount of flavor to it. Mid palate hits with a nice light brown bread grain and toast, then some slight caramel notes. Finishes with actually touches of hazelnut and maybe even some milky chocolate tones as well. Also some mixing plum to raisin like fruit as well in the mix.

There's a surprising amount going on here which is quite enjoyable, even with a slightly weak mouthfeel.
Oct 02, 2020
Photo of daliandragon
Reviewed by daliandragon from Maryland

3.61/5  rDev +6.5%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.5
Picked up at Beer on Tapz at Germantown. Big, malty nose with caramel, nuts, and syrup notes. The flavor is similar, with a medium body and a finish of cocoa and leather. It has some character, I would try this again.
Sep 01, 2020
Photo of EriksAleES
Reviewed by EriksAleES from Colorado

3.84/5  rDev +13.3%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.75
Brew date: 09/22/19
Best Before: 09/22/20
Date of Tasting: 06/29/20

Aroma:
Malt - Bread crust (melanoidin), light plum, and date.
Hops - Low to none.
Yeast - Slightly fruity ester that was similar to red apple (ethyl hexanoate) although not overpowering.

Appearance:
Amber with copper hue (reddish rust). Little to no head with low to no retention. Slight head at the glass rim was off-white/beige.

Flavor:
Malt - Plum, date, light roast, which was more caramel in character than burnt roastiness. Flavors of cooked strawberry jam.
Hops - Low to none. If any, they were slightly herbal/earthy and only barely offset the malt sweetness. I did not perceive a lot of hop bitterness.
Balance: Strongly to the malt.
Finish: Slightly sweet with lingering maltiness.

Mouthfeel:
Medium carbonation despite the low to no head. Medium to the medium-plus body. Slightly unctuous with a weight that is similar to whole milk. There was a minor amount of slickness on the palate that could have been diacetyl; however, likely was not as there was not corresponding buttery note.

Overall:
I was very impressed by the amount of flavor in the beer. Similar in some ways to a Wee Heavy or Doppelbock without the alcohol warmth, this would have been fantastic on a fall day or with a braised beef dish. The beer felt slightly under attenuated compared to other beers I've tried in the dark lager category giving it more perceived body and residual sweetness on the finish. The apple ester I noted on the aroma could have been malt derived that I took for yeast esters as this was a lager.
Jul 01, 2020
 
Rated: 5 by gvickery from Texas

Jun 15, 2020
Photo of Darkmagus82
Reviewed by Darkmagus82 from Texas

3.91/5  rDev +15.3%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75
Poured from a bottle into a pint glass
Appearance – The beer pours a light brownish color with a ruby red highlight color. Upon pouring the brew has a one finger head of off-white foam. The head has a great level of retention, slowly fading over time to leave a decent sum of foamy lace on the sides of the glass.
Smell – The aroma of the brew a biggest of a mix of roastiness and graininess coupled with a rather decent showing of caramel, cherry, and plum. Along with these smells comes a little bit of molasses and a touch of toast. Overall, the smell is dark, sweet, and roasty. Very inviting!!
Taste – The taste begins with a nice blend of lightly toasted bready malt and sweet caramel and molasses. These tastes are present throughout the flavor profile and create a nice balanced base flavor for the brew. Upfront there is also a little bit of a toasted and char taste, which seem to lessen as the taste moves forward. At the same time the molasses also drops out, but is replaced by some cherry and raisin tastes, maintaining the sweetness level, if not enhancing it a tiny bit. At the very end there is a touch of a hay like flavor that comes to the tongue and with the rest leaves on with a nice, slightly sweeter, lightly roasty, and very balanced taste to linger on the tongue.
Mouthfeel – The body of the brew is average to slightly thicker for a brew of its abv., with a carbonation level that is average. Overall the feel is great for accentuating the sweet and roast and makes this brew a slower sipper with lots of flavor all while only at 5.6 % abv.!
Overall – A very nice, approachable, slightly sweeter, but very balanced dark lager. Very well done!
May 08, 2020
 
Rated: 3.13 by aatazebeats from Wisconsin

Apr 14, 2020
 
Rated: 3.44 by Mister_Faucher from Washington

Jan 08, 2020
 
Rated: 3.3 by cdwil from Texas

Nov 25, 2019
 
Rated: 3.19 by Jcarriglio from Florida

Nov 23, 2019
Baltika #4 Original (Dark) from Baltika Breweries
Beer rating: 78 out of 100 with 472 ratings