hpr-knowledge-base/hpr_transcripts/hpr4619.txt

Episode: 4619
Title: HPR Beer Garden 12 - Baltic Porter
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr4619/hpr4619.mp3
Transcribed: 2026-07-31 16:15:16 (official HPR transcript)

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This is Hacker Public Radio Episode 4619, for 2026-04-16
Today's show is entitled, "HPR Beer Garden 12 - Baltic Porter"
The host is Kevie and the duration is 00:31:47
The flag is Clean, and the license is CC-BY-SA
The summary is "Dave and Kevie talk about Baltic Porters."
Hello, hello, and welcome to the Beer Garden Episode 12.
Now, with a bit of a heavy heart, I have to admit that it's the end of an era, it's a sad
time.
It is the last of the winter warmers.
Very sad, it's a tear to the eye.
However, this just means it's a new range of beers coming up soon.
I'm Kibi, and joined as nearly always by Dave, very huge night, Dave.
Hello, yes, I am absolutely fine.
Thank you very much, indeed.
You know, this one has been a long time coming for me, because this was the last of the
last planning batch we did, which was like well before Christmas.
In fact, it might be an in November, we first spoke about this if she's what, four months ago,
and it's taken me up until about two weeks ago to actually find this style that we're going
to be doing this evening.
So, I am anticipatory, if that is indeed a word.
I'm glad to hear that.
Yes, so the style and question is going to be the Baltic Porter, which actually can also
be called Imperial Porter, that pretty much universal, but I'm not actually going to say very
much, because I am going to hand over to my good friend, here, who has been doing the
homework for this episode.
So, Dave, what did you find out about Baltic Porter?
The story of Baltic Porter starts in the 18th century, and it stems from the traditional English
Porter.
Now, English Porter's had a lot of popularity and Britain during that time during the 18th century,
late 1700s.
Porter's are dark robust beers, named for their popularity amongst the working class
Porter's of London.
Now, that's something I didn't know, I didn't realise that's where the name came from.
Brewers in England exported this style quite extensively, and as you'll probably gather,
it did find favour across the Baltic region.
And we were saying the Baltic region, and not talking about the Baltic states specifically,
but any of the countries around the Baltic sea.
So, we're talking about Estonia, Latvia, Russia, Denmark, Germany, Finland, or the area around there.
We're definitely enjoying the Porter style.
But that's the beer when it's way through the shipping routes of the Baltic sea.
Local brewers in countries like Sweden, Poland, Denmark began to brew their own versions of this beer.
Each country adapted its interpretation, if you like, of Porter, to their own local tastes,
and also to the ingredients that are available in those countries at the time.
One of the significant adaptations was the shift from using ale yeast to a larger yeast,
which was much more common in northern and eastern Europe due to the cool affirmation
temperatures that were favored in those regions.
And that led to a much smoother and a much cleaner beer.
Now, the exported versions of Porter were often stronger than those that were consumed domestically in England.
And this was both to endure the long sea voyages, and also because the Baltic mark is favored,
higher alcohol content, makes sense.
But then over time, Baltic port had came to be known for its high strength
and rich, complex, multi-character.
But the development of the Baltic port was also influenced quite strongly by the Stout's
brewed in England for export to the Russian Imperial Court.
Of course, we've had this conversation before around the Imperial Stout.
Imperial Stout's were high now alcohol, very bold in flavoring,
which resonated with the brewers in the Baltic region, and also their consumers.
So the overlap, as you would expect, between the stronger porters and the stronger Stout's
help to shape the character of what would become the Baltic Porter.
Baltic porters are a deep brown to jet-black in color, but often with ruby or garnet highlights,
it says here, when held up to the light, they typically feature a creamy tan head that can
persist due to the beer's richness.
The flavor is intensely multi, now compare that to a regular porter, which is usually a lot
hopier in its style. The notes of dark fruits, like plums, raisins, prunes, and the like,
along with caramel, molasses, and chocolate. So you would definitely expect to see something
a lot sweeter and a lot smoother than you would normally get from a traditional porter.
Some versions of the Baltic porters will also exhibit coffee-like roastiness to it.
The multi-ness, the complexity of the multi, is often complemented by a very subtle
bitterness of the hops, which, again, is one of things that distinguishes it from normal porters.
The warmth of the beer through the higher alcohol content is also very notable, which also is
one of the reasons why it suits so well to the Baltic area, because of the climate, it's much colder,
therefore, having a more warming and a stronger alcohol based ale is much more pleasant.
So on the alcohol side, Baltic porters typically range between 7 to 10 ABV, sometimes even higher
but that just adds to the appreciation and the sensation of the warminess that is
recognised as this style. I think the thing that really stands out for me and I will probably
say that as of this moment, I do not believe I have had a Baltic porter before. Certainly,
while I was going through this and looking at the characteristics and reading, effectively
what a Baltic port is supposed to be and what it represents, I don't recognise it. So this can
I've got here that I will be opening a little later, is going to be quite an experience for me.
But I think the big takeaway from my side is the fact that a Baltic porter is essentially
a lager, as opposed to a port, a hold on, hold on. Effectively, I say, effectively. In terms of
the way it's brewed, the fact that it's complemented and the fact that it using a lager-based yeast
rather than an a-aliest as part of its fermentation process. The male figure of the Baltic
porter is quite full-bodied. It's nice and smooth. A sore-in-one of the articles that I was reading
that says medium to thick in terms of texture and viscosity, which is a huge huge thumbs up for me.
Like to moderate carbonation, the word it uses here, which if it's right, I am so looking
full to this. Serapy. I do enjoy Serapy. As we said before, we went through the Imperial Stouts,
quite some episodes ago now, wasn't it? So yeah, that is all genuine. You all have now.
Anything you want to do out to that? Just to give it a wee bit of fairness. And this is actually
it's amazing how things, you know, leading to each other even when we're not attending them to,
I spoke about the lagering process last time. Remember about how it was called fermented and
stored under clay and it's quite an aged thing. To be fair to Baltic porters, right, they're
not made from hops. Not entirely lagering. But they are, you've done using the lagering process.
And again, the reason for that is just because hops don't grow in the cold and wait. That's
why they use Baltid barley. And that's the reason Scottish beers traditionally are used to that.
But yes, no, no, you got that spot on. Yeah, the distinction there is that they're brewed as
lagers rather than they're not lagers. Yes, they all brewed as lagers. Yes, absolutely. Actually,
I'm shocked that you struggle to get it purely because I had quite a few. Do you know how
difficult it was to kind of hold on to this one? Because I really enjoyed the first few I had.
So this one is a genuine Baltic porter because it is by the Paul Hala brewery in Estonia.
I have got and it's funny. I'm there looking at, I had to look this up. It's like an all two dots above
it. That's the name of this beer. It's all both of them with a two dots above it.
And I was like, how do you characterize it? Oh, I know. I actually went down and I got it.
It's uh, and I'm going, that's not a good start. So I'm hoping it's a,
more than an err. What's this beer? Yeah. So I've had another Baltic porter before from there.
It's not the same one. I did a really left this one for this episode. And I have also had several
that barley wines. They quite don't do fruit and fused barley wines. They're fantastic. And one thing
you will notice that there's no dash wax seal on this one. I ate that, flies me up the wall.
You spend half an hour trying to get into the beer. This one did not come with a wax seal. I'm really
looking forward to this. From the glass, straight away, it's really dark. We can see.
Oh, nose on the bottle. Roasty chocolatey. Like, uh, figs or dates or something like that. Yeah,
and more chocolate. Oh, I'm looking forward to this. So let's get this port. They go aggressive
port. And you can see they are just very little. Yeah, that doesn't agree with the description.
Well, I mean, does in the actual colouring, you know, kind of quite dark head. Oh, okay.
It's not coming across on the, uh, all right. Okay. See, that is a wee. It's good. It's quite a dark
cream head. Uh, that's quite a very, very black. I can't see through that. It's, it's, it's black.
No. Oh, much fruitier in the glass. In the dates are still there, but there's also quite a few
bad easing things. It's a bit more bitter. Yeah, this is smelling divine. Again, this is probably
a kind of style you are either going to love or hate. I don't think I say anybody's going to go
nerd. Sorry. So I'll clean one of that. So they're not going to go, uh, then they're hopefully
not. So this is just slightly above what you mentioned, but not much. 10.5 percent. And I like this.
It's a serve, not chilled. It's a serve at 10.14 degrees. Oh. So proper notes on it. I can. Oh,
no, that is a bit of English. So much. There's a lot of, uh, thing, an imperial Baltic
portal as dark as the Estonian winter nights. So they go. So let's give this a wee try. Oh,
man, that's thick. And that is chewy. Oh, I'm jealous. The chocolate is not coming through.
There's a roastedness in there. Kind of struggling to actually say what the roastedness is.
It has almost a tree cleanness. You know, where it's like that toasted, roasted burnt almost
then slightly bitterness. And then you get fruit on the back end. The fruit is, it's not dates.
It's actually got slightly tartiness in the back end, not majorly, but, you know, something like
a black cut and tea. Yeah, that's really nice. Oh, my word yes. So tell you what, I'm going to
shut up now. I'm going to sip at this and you can enjoy yours. Excellent. Uh, that's that does sound
rather amazing. Now, I'm just trying to find this on the brewery's website. And I can't see it.
So this is a special or they don't do it anymore. But this one is also from an Estonian brewery.
So you couldn't have made that up. The brewery is called the buhaster brewery in Estonia, in
Twitter. The beer itself is called wave tactics. It's only seven and a half percent ABV. It's got
a beautiful artwork on the can. Very nice. I first thought it was Viking long boots. No,
that I'm seeing it. No, I can see horses. Yeah, this one actually came in, I did
back, I can't information this last time, actually. I've managed to cancel my beer 52 subscription.
And the box that reminded me I needed to cancel contained this impulsive porter. So literally
as I cancelled it, it delivered that is best shot yet. It says, it does say, say, on this one,
store cold, but I don't know whether that's a beer 52 thing or whether it's a genuine recommendation
from the brewery, but this is room temperature anyway. So let's open the can and unusually it's
in a can because these darker beers tend to come in bottles. So let's see what happens with this.
Wow, okay. So that's quite a fresh aroma coming from it. Very sweet, very multi, but I'm not
really getting much more than that at the moment. So let me get this poured. I'll see what it looks
like. At some point, I'll have to turn the gate off on my microphone because, but I'm not
speaking, the microphone tends to cut the noise out. So you miss out on some of the better elements
of the poor. So that's the, the look of it. From what I can see, not too dissimilar to mine and color.
I'd roughly the same color ahead and very dark. It is just off white. Oh, and so it was brown.
It's more of a light honeycomb in color. It's marginally ruby. So there is a redness coming through
a ruby element coming through it. But without showing you showing you front of a light, that is
jet black. That is, it really does look nice. Disappointingly, I'm not actually getting much
from the glass. I'm still getting the multi-ness, but the overlying, say probably even a
lighter cidity that came from the can is not coming up, or where there's much,
much gustow from me from the glass itself. At some point, I think we can have to have a
conversation about the glass glass wear. Oh yeah, and what glass wear actually works or not.
So I'm actually using, it's not the out of Harris glass. It's actually the Star Trek glass from
the one that I presented at the last pod crawl. But it's exactly the same shape. If
I would probably say it's the same glass just branded differently. But it has a narrow tapered
inwards top rather than slightly outwardly tapered that you'd normally have from a
traditional beer glass in a pub, for example, like that one. So then all the month one, for example,
take this outwards. I've been imagine, on short, Kevin will nod or shake his head, that does have
an impact on how you receive the eromas. So yeah, nothing more. Let me try it. Hello. That is
beautiful. So the multi-nesses there in spades. There is the the sweetness that a company is at.
I'm getting very, very light influences from your dark fruits. Not getting much of a
coffiness from it, but I don't necessarily think that was one of the mandatory elements of
porters. That is really nice. I'm just going to see if I can get a second opinion of this one from
my eldest. It's a Baltic port at seven and a half percent. Yeah, I thought so. Yeah, he likes it.
Did you get it back? Yes. Yes. Not enough as much of it, but I did get it back.
Right. Okay. So now that I've taken some down and there's more room inside the glass and it is wider
open. I am actually getting stone fruits. So I would say prunes is probably the largest of the
non-malt fragrances I'm getting through from it. That is incredibly pleasant. Now, it doesn't
have the syrupy chewiness that I would usually want to go for. I think in the grand scheme of things,
having heard Kebby's description of his, I would say I probably would have preferred that, but given
this one, I am mightily impressed by what it delivers, given that it's only a seven-half percent,
which is quite low on the Baltic port of scale. It is full-bodied. It's not light at all.
The flavours are there. This is something I could probably do again in a single sitting,
whereas I don't know whether that will be the case with yours. Give me another one, I'll tell you.
I can only have one. Okay. That answers my question. I think it's one thing that's
dangerous about the Baltic port compared to the Imperial Stout. One Imperial Stout is fine for me.
You know, I don't really have much desire. I'm not getting, I mean, yes, you can tell it's strong.
You know, you can tell it's flavorful, but I'm not getting the boozy, very heavy strength that
you get from an Imperial Stout, and I think that's dangerous, because that's very drinkable.
At some point, it might be worth doing a side-by-side comparison of a 10.5
Baltic port or a 10.5 Imperial Stout. I have to be sure with that, but we have to record that the weekend.
Don't think I'm going to get up for what, next week. That will be the kind of thing that
that would actually make sense to do around a table. Yes, in the same place. Yes, I think because
also, as we have both experienced at some point in the past, maybe trying to get through
two beers of 10.5% might be quite dangerous in an oil itself. Yes, especially when you go work
the next week. Yes, yes. It is a school night. I am working tomorrow, but I don't know. I
have got to get up early as well. We've really picked out moments to record. All right, I think I can
guess, but how would you score your Baltic port? I mean, to be honest, I probably, I know, had this
been the first time I'd try Baltic port, and I would have been, wow, 10, and I'd have been, you know,
10, and I'd have been having had a few. This one is very, very good, but it's not the best Baltic
port I've had. Oh, okay. It's very, very, very good. You know, it's still very, very good.
But it's not our 10 or 10. However, insane that, I'm going to give this. I'm going to be stupid
9.75 or a 10. You know, it's just, it's, I'll, I'll tell you why it's because the best Baltic
port I've ever had has been one called waiting for the tide to come in. And it was by a,
one of the Scandinavian breweries. And I've actually got to give a shout out, actually.
This company just exists anymore, so I'm not doing much in the way of promotion, but
there was a place here called the funk, and it was an Italy, but they had a full contingent,
they actually gave you a menu. You asked for a beer, they gave you a menu. Not a page on the menu,
a full menu, a six page menu of beers. It was amazing. And I saw this one called waiting for the
tide to come in and I went, that sounds divine. I actually thought from reading it was an
imperial state. No, it was a Baltic portar. And it was that good. I bought the rest of what he had.
I'd great expense to me, because of course it was a restaurant, not uplooking takeaway shop.
So yeah, I bought what he had off him. And I also then searched, and I could only get it in one
place that would sell it here, and send it here, sorry. And I think I bought it like a pack of
ten, and that was all they had. So it was yeah, so waiting for the waiting for the tide to come in,
if anybody is lucky enough to get it, I would say, try it. Can't remember the name of the
brewery right now. I remember it was Scandinavian. So Norway, Sweden, Denmark, one of those
couldn't give you more than that. But that was a 10 out of 10, but this one I'd say 9.75,
just a stop, a wee bit short of perfection, just but tinley short of perfection, which is still pretty good.
Now, I'm really interested to know how you're going to translate your 9.75 to an untapped rating,
given that you, we normally like double or half, we're in turning a wish direction, we're going.
I don't think at this moment in time, 4.875 is actually, you know, it's no, it's no, it's no,
so I don't let you pay like 20 good a month or something stupid. Yeah, I'm not going to spend that,
look. I have enough subscriptions. Actually, that's one thing I would see is if anybody has
something they actually do use and feel passionate about, consider denating to them,
and especially with a fully service and they offer their take donations. I would say do that.
Let me see now. I think to be honest, I've just got to give the one short of
perfection, so we do it in 0.25 on untapped, so it'll be 4.75. No, absolutely. Yes,
yeah, awesome. And what about yours? Well, like I say, this is probably my first
evapolatic quarter. I said, like I say, I don't certainly don't remember having done one before.
It's worth, I think you can search by be a style on the app, so maybe worth me at some point
going through and check and see if I have, but taking this as standalone and basically on my
new knee joint reaction to it, I'm going to put this at about 8.5. It's certainly not the
nicest dog Caleb I've ever had, no question at all. I think had I been able to go and choose
from a selection? I probably would have gone with one that had a higher ABV. That probably says more
about me than I would want to. I can't see anything. I'm the same. No, exactly. But 7.5% which is a
nice, is strong in the grand scheme of things. It is very nice, it is incredibly sweet, it takes a
lot of boxes for me in terms of the styles that I like. I do prefer a sweeter beer than a
drier more bitter one. I think 8.5 out of 10 is a very good reflection of what I think of this.
I am inclined to try and find other Baltic porters to try and find other Baltic porters. At least
now I have an indication of places I can go to find them off the back of this. I may have said
in a previous episode that Porter has never been one of my preferred styles because I'm not a huge
fan of the bitter smokiness of some of the porters that I've had. Now that could be, I've only been
drinking inferior porters. We have done a port of style before, haven't we? Was it? Portart? We did
portart. I was a straight portart, which did change my mind on bats that porters can be fun. But this
is a style, this is fundamentally different from what a normal portar is. It's always been an
education for me to learn about these styles, things that I've never had before. If you make
me go out and buy it more beer, then that's great, no Caroline is not listening. So yeah, no,
really, really pleased with this one. That's good. Actually, that's good because I do remember that
you actually say in that several times in the past, Porter is not my favorite, but one drinker
at a time, one porter at a time. I'm always really of saying, I don't like a style,
local exceptions, including not included here in this statement. Because I believe there's good
and there's good and bad and most things, but the music to be honest, there's good and bad and
most things. I'm not going to like every Baltic portart, but I've every one I've had so far,
I've enjoyed trying out the different things and appreciating what they are. Of course,
I don't think. I've got anything else to you. I seem to recall we have had some feedback.
Yes, we did have some feedback on the HDR website. We had a comment today. This is basically
it's a correction for us. We've put half a Verizon with an S. Where is the correct word?
Sorry, we put half a Verizon, HUFE R, W-E-I-S-N. Where is the correct word is F-E-G-F-E?
Verizon with a Z. All right, so who's spooked that comment?
G-N-G-N-M? Oh, now this is probably the same one who actually commented G-N-M on
beer garden number 10, the Scotchale we have, because he has put down Scotchale,
where he appropriate from the Baltic Sea. German brewery started a becker from
Struzzland has a Scotchale at 9% ABB. However, aside from the AB, it's one of those style
brew, a brewed with Pete Kiln. Pete Kiln barley, that describes as a P.T. and multi-extraordinary
experience. Slancheva, and I'm very impressed, he's actually spelled Slancheva perfectly.
But, uh, excellent. I don't will be able to get that here, but I will certainly keep
a look at following the imported beers places. To be honest, this to me is something that I don't
like, P.T. Additions, it's something for the brewers 10 to put on to Scotchale, which is not
their at all. I mean, in fact, I think actually commented on that during the episode, a Scotchale
doesn't actually have a P.T. essence to it at all. Scotch, whiskey does a lot of the time, but
not the Scotchale. Yes, I quite like P.T. In fact, if I remember rightly, it was the, uh,
no more 15 is, is very, very P.T. And it's, uh, in its composition. And I like that. So, no,
I think I might enjoy that, but I get what you're saying, if, if Pete is not a native addition to
the, the flavor profile of a, of a Scotchale, then why put it in the, I mean, it's like
like being right through in a heaven of ice and as of always yes, actually. No, but, uh, yes,
please do keep the, keep them coming. No, I was asked to come back in to make sure we are
known what's coming. No, we did actually put that down. So, given this is your section coming up,
I'll let you know what is the next few episodes. Oh, joyous. Okay. So, yeah, we, we've, we've, we
had a, um, uh, a little production meeting before this recording. And we've decided,
we're for the next few next episode, episode 13 will be the triple IPA style. And what you'll
notice here is that we started, we're starting to ramp down a bit in the, the, the, the, the, the,
the strength and robustness of the, at the ails that we're going to be reviewing, uh, as we head
towards the middle of spring. So, triple IPA will be the next one. The one after that will be
a fantastically ambiguous term of strong lager, air quotes, strong lager. That I think that's
a nice one because that'll be reasonably open to, uh, to interpretation. So, it'll be quite
interesting to see how you and I care, we come up with vastly different things, or exactly the same
exactly the same. Yeah. Yeah. And then the one after that, which will be episode 15, will be doing
a double IPA. We did determine that the, the triple IPA and the double IPA styles were different,
but also it helps us with that ramping down of the strengths as we enter into further into spring.
So, those are our next three triple IPA, strong lager and double IPA. Yes, absolutely. And to be honest,
I actually wanted it was strong lager was maybe my influence because in the UK, it has our bad reputation
and is affectionately known or maybe un-infamously known as Trump juice. And I actually want to see
wait a minute. Is this a bit unfair on it? Is it purely just there to, you know,
high alcohol, get you drunk very quickly, aren't cheaply?
On is that actually a decent drink behind it? So, yeah, wait a couple episodes and you'll find it
out of opinion. Yeah, we'll make sure we do the strong lager episode purely based on merit rather than
any predispositions or preconceptions of what the beer or the brewery may have previously stood for.
Yes, I think it will, will come up with something decent, but doing that, I think. Yes, absolutely.
Right then, so all is there anymore? Yes, what I would like to add, that at the time of recording,
I am three days away from the Sheffield indie beer feast, which both Caroline, my wife,
and I, a Caroline, my wife, that's one person. I'm going to be going to. Yes, we'll be sampling some
quality beers from local and slightly further afield breweries during the course of saturday.
I'll report back here on the results of that one at the next episode, I think. Very good. Yes, indeed.
This is another thing we haven't actually talked about yet, but we know what's sorry with
the listeners will talk about it ourselves. We talked about we need to do some book reviews,
some beer book reviews, and we have actually read a nice and relatively short book, which you can
actually read ahead and see if you agree with us or not. Dave, what does the book?
George Wentz book, drinking with George. Yes, and it's a lovely, it's a very, very pleasant
pleasant read. If you don't know who George Wentz is, he's been in a lot of the Disney Pixar
movies as a voice actor, but I think most people certainly have a certain age will remember him as
as norm from Cheers, which he was in. I think right from the very start, then start. Yeah,
to the point where she ended is such a loveable character, and just by a way of enticement to the
idea of actually going and reading the books yourself, the character of norm, and George Wentz,
the same person. He had the joy of playing himself in that show for so many years,
but if he go and read the book, and just for clarity, as well, it's 225 pages, so that's
him he's not a big figure. Maybe we'll all depend on every day's status as opposed.
I'm reading a 515 page book at the moment, so yes, in the ganz game, it is, it is a small book,
but it's worth it. Oh yeah, totally, totally. So right in, so if you want to get in touch with
us, links will be in the show notes for untapped, if you want to connect to us,
best way to actually do anything is to leave a comment. We will read it out on any of the
beer gardens, but if you actually have something to say, then the best thing you could actually do
is record an episode. Now, if you want to do a style, if you really want to do a beer garden,
we're not objectionable, this is a community podcast. So if you please email myself or leave a
message or something, then check my profile, KV, or I'm just the my emails on there, I'm not really
wanting to read it out to be fairly honest. And I'll send the intro for the show if you want to keep
it consistent. So just the beer pour out on the, just stick it on the front. So yeah, so with that,
join us tomorrow for another exciting episode of Hacker Public Radio.
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