Dok - big black baltic

Sampled @ Van Moll Fest 2025. Opaque pitch black color, medium sized off-white to beige head. Aroma and flavor are malts, a touch of sweetness, floral-ish, tough to describe but quite alright. 7-8-7,5-8-7,5

8 March 2025. At Hal 16 (Dok Brewing).

Fondant, almond, toast, tobacco. Sweetish raisin, coffee & cream, bit herbal & earthy-nutty. Pronounced earthy hops, coffee & tobacco. Elegant.

On tap at Dok Brewing Taproom, Ghent, Belgium. A dark brown/black coloured pour with a healthy beige head on top. Sweetish, roasty, malty, chocolate, caramel taste and aroma. Served a little warm but it was a 30 degree plus afternoon.

340 ml can. Pours a very dark brown with moderate tan head. Aromas of bittering hops, a little chocolate and chalky roasted malts. Flavors of dry dark chocolate and more chalky roasted malts with a continued odd hoppiness.

Baltic porter by Dok - considerably stronger than their previous take on this style, the Brugse Puurter. From a can bought at the Jumbo supermarket in the north of Ghent, at the edge of the harbour. Thick, greyish off-white, crackling, uneven-bubbled, irregularly cobweb-lacing, initially stable head later reduced to a waferthin ring, on a clear, dark mahogany brown robe (not as 'black' as I was expecting) with reddish burgundy glow. Aroma of moist dark grey rye bread, toffee, pipe tobacco, Lonka caramel 'drop' candy, cold espresso, teriyaki, roasted chicory, Koetjesreep, old raisins, dried prunes, something sugarfree chewing gum-like, wet young leather, clove, whisky. Dense onset, sweetish with a bitter streak, fruity in a 'dark' way with notes of dried prunes, dried figs and a wee bit of pear, quite lively carbonated for this style yet in a very fine-bubbled way (still delivering 'stings' on the tongue though); creamy, oily, full body, thick slabs of dry caramel, Ersatz chocolate, a touch of fondant and dark rye bread gliding over the tongue - sweetish and nutty initially, but moving to roasted bitterness in the end, albeit in a mellow kind of way: that typical coffee flavour is certainly there, but more bitterness is brought by the fine selection of hops, applied in a leafy, herbal, quite powerful manner. Their bitterness even extends a bit beyond the toastiness of the malts, but meanwhile the alcohol shows up as well, whisky- and gin-like, with a heating effect, though most of its wryness is luckily absorbed by the malts - most, but not all. All things considered, this is a fine example of a top-fermented Baltic porter, a genre which is predominantly bottom-fermented; it is clean, hefty, malty and smooth like a Baltic porter ought to be. The main thing in my mind that makes it deviate a bit from the real 'classics' in this style (Okocim, Zywiec, Carnegie, Baltika...) is that this one is notably sweeter and creamier - but then the new wind blowing through the old Baltic porter idiom springs to mind, because the global craft beer movement spared not one single genre in existence (and out of existence) and swept through Baltic porter as well, with Põhjala's masterpieces at its cutting edge. Those too are top-fermented and sweeter than the classics, in a kind of parallel evolution with imperial stout, intertwined with Baltic porter history from the beginning and difficult to separate from it perhaps even more so today. I assume Janos has been more inspired by Põhjala's interpretations than by the old ones that existed long before the craft beer movement arrived in Europe, and that is fine. So, to make a long story short: liked it.

#porter

5/II/25 - on tap @ DOK Brewing Company (Gent), BB: n/a (2025-103)

Clear to little cloudy brown beer, small creamy beige head, a little stable, a bit adhesive. Aroma: malty, cow fodder, grains, soft roast. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: nice, a bit oxidized, a little bitter, caramel, raisins, some chocolate, dry touch. Aftertaste: malty, grains, chocolate, bitter, roasted, very oxidized, dried fruits, prunes, soft acidity, nice stuff!