Find your Baltic Bliss

This article originally appeared in the January/February 2021 issue of Zymurgy Magazine

By Mark Pasquinelli

My love affair with Baltic porter began nearly two decades ago. While browsing through the import section of a beer superstore, my wife-to-be and I stumbled upon a cache of strange bottles. In my craft beer education, I was at a coming-of-age period of innocence and naïveté. Unjaded by dogma and petty prejudices, everything was new and exciting.

Until then, I’d only heard of the style in passing. The word Baltic merely conjured up thoughts of a sea in Europe and a low-rent avenue in Monopoly. But the beer’s origin appealed to our mutual Polish heritages, and the price was right. We purchased several bottles.

Once home, we found the brew to be anything but low rent. It poured dark brown, with a thick, toffee-colored head and a full, creamy mouthfeel. Notes of sweet malt, chocolate, caramel, and molasses mingled with dark fruit. Roast flavors and hop bitterness were minimal. Yet, despite its richness, the beer finished dry, with a pleasant warming sensation from a robust 9.5% ABV.

It reminded me of a lyric from a favorite song. With apologies to Pink Floyd, we’d never known a lager to compare to this—a true state of bliss. That beer was Zywiec Porter, and it was a game changer…