Victory Brewing - Baltic Thunder

I am not happy with the weather today.  It rolled in with waves of black clouds...brought that eery pseudo-darkness that seems completely unnatural in the middle of the afternoon.  Then came the downpour, combined with a strong wind that completely de-leaved all the trees around my house.  So, now I have a yard full of leaves that I will have the pleasure of raking this weekend.  Mother Nature can be a real bitch sometimes.

Tonight I'll be drinking a Baltic Thunder porter from Victory Brewing in Downington, PA.  This is an imperial porter with lots of EU influence - brewed with german lager yeast, European whole flower hops, and a German malt base.  There is plenty of thunder behind it with 8.5% alcohol.  Puns are fun.

This brew comes in a 22oz bottle with a label that includes a picture of the Baltic god of thunder, which looks more like the cowardly lion from the Wizard of Oz.  Seriously, look at that photo and tell me that isn't the cowardly lion!  The beer is a dark, ruby-black hue that lets just a bit of light through it.  In fact, when you hold it up to the light, that's when the ruby-red really comes through.  The aroma is rich and sweet, with green apples and sweet grapes.  Also bitter coffee beans, toffee and sweet molasses come through.  The taste starts off with loads of sweet malts - semi-sweet chocolate seems to be the primary player within that big malt backbone.  Also some burnt wood, charcoal, with some gritty roasted coffee making its way through towards the finish.  Maybe a hint of raisin in there but I really have to search for it.  The finish is gritty, with an almost-powdery chocolate finish.  The alcohol is noticeable, but pleasant, it adds a nice warmth to the beer.

Overall Rating:  This was a great porter!  More chocolate than I expected, but it worked well with the other flavors of the beer.  As far as 'dessert' beers go, this beer will go near the top of my favorites.  A-

Rogue Double Chocolate Stout

Rogue Double Chocolate Stout.  Sounds delicious, eh?  This beer is brewed with real dutch bittersweet chocolate, along with some chocolate malts grown and fired at Rogue's own barley farm.  Hopped with Cascade and Rogue Micro Hops from Rogue's own hop bines.  Brew stats come in at 50 IBUs, 135 lovibond (super dark), and 8%ABV.


The beer pours a light-sucking black-brown color with a half inch of dark tan head.  The aroma starts with rich bitter chocolate, closely followed by roasted malts and iced coffee.  Also some smokiness in there.  The first drink is, holy F'ing chocolate!  Extreme dark, bitter chocolate.  Not chocolate roasted malts.....ACTUAL chocolate.  After that chocolate blast, some flavors start to come through that remind me this is actually a beer.  Burnt, roasted malts and a brief hop bitterness make themselves known, along with some crushed coffee beans.  The finish brings back a reminder of the chocolate with a thick grittiness, like the way your mouth feels after a big bite of chocolate syrup on ice cream.

Overall Rating:  (4.0 out of 6.0)  This glass of beer felt like a 25lb dumbbell in my hand.  It also drank heavy, with bittersweet chocolate obviously being the main player in the show.  While I was a little off-put at first by the extremity of the chocolate, this beer grew on me over time.  After acclimating to the chocolate, the rest of the flavors became more pronounced and it turned into a nicely balanced, roasty toasty chocolate stout.  If you're looking for a change of pace, and enjoy chocolate (and stouts), this is certainly worth a try!