Arc Grind
Alidade Brewing

my first beer from these guys, unique and solid, baltic porter that would be good on its own, done with espresso, and lots of it, bold beer, something that would be killer on a winter weekend morning, neat recipe. dark brown in color but not quite black from the tap, decent ring of light tan bubbles on top, not overly viscous or anything for its strength. aroma is bold black coffee, strong in every sense, bitter to the point of almost being burnt, more dark low end here than from the roasted barley even, and there is some right away acidity to it, i think a more careful espresso selection and addition would be a good thing, like a profile roasted natty bean or something, this is a little old school which isnt great, but in the nose its warm and cozy and wintery and its hard to be too critical, nuances of dark chocolate, leather, and light smoke, and i can appreciate the quality of the base beer still, nice cold conditioning and relative dryness for all the malt. the coffee has some bite in the flavor, bitter and sharp both, but also pleasant too, i like strong coffee, and there is a caffeine hit here as well, even in small doses. dry bitter baking cocoa, root beer, and charcoal character with the coffee and grain together, a light raisin note but not a fruity coffee bean to me, seems to be roasted through that level of nuance, medium bodied overall but smooth even with the sharpness of the java, it has length without being sugary, light caramel in the dead center is all, and i like the lager yeast in it. robust in a good way, a little coffee tweak away from excellence, back the roast down, maybe less heat exposure in the beer too? not sure how this was added but a cold steep generally yields less acidity which would be a boon to this, but i enjoyed this a lot, especially from a new to me brewery, and think the baltic porter as the base beer is a great call and nicely executed. curious to try more from this place after this one...