6.6/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 6.5
Dark muddy tan (I broke out the Duvel glass for this?); aroma of peach yoghurt, glue & plastic (yum!), figs, candy bananas (damn, I've learned the eczematic art of making an appetizing aroma sound awful). Malty-yeasty palate leans toward peachy esters. Texture is almost creamy. Malts are dominant, but yet neutral-tasting. Dry finish courtesy of alcohol and some herbal (styrian) hops. I'm amazed at how obvious styrians are to me these days. It's scary. Overall, decent but not worthy of a Duvel glass. Underattenuated, too.
Tried
from Can
on 01 Feb 2003
at 23:52
7.9/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 8.5
2002. Nice ruby color, but it smells like play doh. No carbonation. The taste is VERY malty, and slighty sweet and tart. A decent barley wine, but the smell really kills it for me. - this vintage, 3.3 2003 - considerable better this year - marked absence of that play doh smell and taste - sweetness kicked down a notch - some spice added, most notably cinnamon - brown sugar and a hop kick at the end - great vintage - I will certainly cellar.
Tried
on 03 Jan 2003
at 20:58
7.9/10
—
Appearance 10
Aroma 6
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 8.5
I will confess my ignorance and tell everyone that I have no idea what a Baltic Porter is, but I do though that this is a mighty fine beer. It looks more like an Imperial Stout than a Porter - jet black with a dark tan head. Chocolate aroma. This tastes like liquid bitter-sweet chocolate, more so than any other beer. After a few seconds in your mouth, there is a blast of tartness that reminds me of certain Belgain ales, but only for a moment, which makes this beer even more interesting. Chocolate/toffee finish. Impressive.
Tried
on 03 Jan 2003
at 19:13
6.5/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 3
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 8
With the exception of the unimpressive nose, very nice beer with cigar and hoppy overtones, chewy like a rich fruitcake. But an alt with bottom fermentation????
Tried
on 31 Oct 2002
at 12:01
3.9/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 1
Flavor 5
Texture 4
Overall 3.5
A rare style made in the US: a Baltic-style Porter. Very strong, rich porter, comparable to Imperial Stouts. Made with lager yeast. Anyway, I've had very bad luck with Heavyweight's beers in bottles. This time, the beer smelled of badly spoiled milk, and had a bad off-flavor I couldn't characterize. Otherwise, it seemed a good roasty malty rich porter. I'll really need to try this on draft in the area. UPDATE: Just tried it in draft form. Smelled exactly the same. Yuck. Thus, no change in my rating.
Tried
from Bottle
on 31 Mar 2001
at 23:34
5.8/10
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Appearance 4
Aroma 6
Flavor 5
Texture 6
Overall 7
Re rate a few years later with a 2005 bottle in 2008, courtesy dchmela. Plummy alcoholic nose. A little sweatsock. Sweet and fruity with a big round finish. Brownish light color.
Interesting packaging with a wax sealed crown. When I peeled the wax off - there was a brownish sticky material around the rim of the cap - leading me to think that one reason for the wax seals was that the crown seals were imperfect, resulting in some leakage (further confirmation was found when I popped the cap and discovered it was a twist off...on a bottle-conditioned barleywine??). Anyway, the beer was dark brown and cloudy, with a strong smell of date like maltiness and some hint at hops. Flavor was rather harsh, with a stinging hoppiness. I was only able to drink a little more than half of it.
Interesting packaging with a wax sealed crown. When I peeled the wax off - there was a brownish sticky material around the rim of the cap - leading me to think that one reason for the wax seals was that the crown seals were imperfect, resulting in some leakage (further confirmation was found when I popped the cap and discovered it was a twist off...on a bottle-conditioned barleywine??). Anyway, the beer was dark brown and cloudy, with a strong smell of date like maltiness and some hint at hops. Flavor was rather harsh, with a stinging hoppiness. I was only able to drink a little more than half of it.
Tried
from Bottle
on 01 Feb 2001
at 10:05
6/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 5
Flavor 6
Texture 4
Overall 7
I'm tiring some of the use of lots of sugar to create these super-powered Belgian type ales with cidery flavors and overwhelming palates. This one is moderate at least but not terrible drinkable.
Tried
on 30 Nov 2000
at 13:47
6.6/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 6
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 6.5
Clearly inspired by Duvel, this is a good beer, but lacking the depth that Duvel has. Rich, strong and yeasty - the brewers clearly know what they're doing here.
Tried
on 22 Aug 2000
at 22:05