Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

22 ounce bottle into snifter, bottled on 3/22/2017. Pours opaque dark brown/black color with a 1-2 finger fairly dense khaki head with good retention, that reduces to a small cap that lingers. Nice spotty soapy lacing clings on the glass, with a fair amount of streaming carbonation retaining the cap. Aromas of big nutty dark roasted coffee, milk chocolate, cocoa, caramel, brown sugar, almonds, and toasted dark/brown bread; with lighter notes of vanilla, smoke, dark fruit, herbal, wood, pepper, and roast/toasted earthiness. Damn nice aromas with great balance and complexity of dark/roast/bready malt, coffee, and light earthy hop notes; with great strength. Taste of big nutty dark roasted coffee, milk chocolate, cocoa, caramel, brown sugar, almonds, and toasted dark/brown bread; with lighter notes of vanilla, smoke, dark fruit, herbal, wood, pepper, and roast/toasted earthiness. Mild herbal/spicy hop and roast/char bitterness on the finish. Lingering notes of nutty coffee, milk chocolate, cocoa, caramel, brown sugar, almonds, dark/brown bread, light vanilla/smoke/char, herbal, wood, pepper, and roast/toasted earthiness on the finish for a while. Great complexity, robustness, and balance of dark/roast/bready malt, coffee, and light earthy hop flavors; with a great roast/hop bitter/sweet balance; and zero acrid/astringent flavors after the finish. Nicely clean lager finish. Slightly increasing dryness from hop/char bitterness. Medium carbonation and medium full body; with a very smooth, creamy/silky/bready/grainy, and slightly sticky/chalky mouthfeel that is nice. Mildly warming alcohol for 9.3%. Overall this is an excellent Baltic porter! All around great complexity, robustness, and balance of dark/roast/bready malt, coffee, and light earthy hop flavors; very smooth and dangerously easy to drink for the ABV; with the very mildly bitter/drying finish. Great fruity/nutty coffee presence, well rounded classic porter malt complexity, and mild balancing earthy hops. Never overly roasty, acrid, or drying. I found this to be just a bit on the thin side for the ABV, but nothing to really complain about. A very enjoyable offering, and spot on style example.