Brewed for the “Baltic Porter Day” in 2020, a unique arrangement of the style called the Brewing Polish Treasury, enriched with the addition of cocoa, vanilla sticks, and Tonka beans! Together they create an extremely delicious combination that is bonded by the creamy texture obtained by saturating the beer with nitrogen.

	WRCLW Tonka Vanilla and Chocolate Baltic Porter Nitro What we have added to this long-ageing dark bottom-fermenting beer with strong, malty core and subtler dark malty tones are such aromatic ingredients as cocoa, vanilla sticks, and Tonka beans!

Style

The Baltic Porter style, as the name suggest, evolved in the Baltic Sea region in the 19th century as a response to the British Imperial Stout. In contrast, it has a more intense malt foundation, a more harmonized bouquet, and most of all – it is a bottom fermentation beer. In fact, it is a longer fermented and aged, dark version of Bock with less distinct roasted notes and increased sweetness. It will certainly warm you up, but despite of the high alcohol contante it remains highly drinkable and pleasant in taste. On the occasion of Baltic Porter Day, we have diversified the already extractive and aromatic base with the addition of cocoa, vanilla sticks, and crashed tonka beans!

Malts/extract:

Similarly to Bock, the malty foundation of the Baltic Porter has been made by the Munich malts, which account for the beer’s sweetness and full-body as well as introducing a large number of melanoidins, reminiscent of caramelized bread crust. English brown malt causes in nutty, caramel notes and the chocolate, coloring malts are responsible for the dark color with ruby ​​flashes. There is fever dark malts than in Imperial Stout, which is why the coffee and chocolate notes are definitely less intense.

Hops:

We have used traditional Continental hop: Taurus (DE) to achieve sufficient level of bitterness and the tobacco-herbal profile, which oxidizes in an interesting way with undergoes time, enriching the aromating profile (especially in the case of dark and strong beers).

Extra ingredients/spices:

All of the “extra ingredients” we have added at the last stage of the ageing process by extraction in a Hop Gun machine:

• Skimmed cocoa – ground cocoa beans, partly skimmed, as fat acids are not welcomed in beers. The cocoa has preserved its wonderful chocolate aroma.
• Vanilla sticks – sticks of Mexican vanilla, smaller than its Madagascar counterpart, ground before being added to preserve the aroma and vanilla contents.
• Tonka beans – Tonka beans are well known for their intense aroma that brings to mind marzipan, rum, and almonds. The incredible thing is that just a tiny amount of this plant is needed to produce a distinct effect, which is widely use in the perfume industry, among others.

Ageing: *

Such thick and intense beers store as well as good wines. It is an excellent idea to get a few bottles and open them over a longer period of time (every half a year, every year, etc.) to compare how the beer changes. First, the beer is going to bring to mind chocolate flavours. With time it is going to release aromas of porto, sherry, and dry fruit (prunes, raisins, and cherries). It’s an experience You can not miss! If stored in optimal conditions, the beer is going to take us by surprise with its rich aromas that get better with time, even after 5 or 20 years.

*Make sure the beer is stored in optimal conditions (temperature of about 10C, no exposure to sunlight) and it’s going to produce noble oxidization notes.

Nitrogen infused beer:

The idea behind infusing beers with nitrogen rather than carbon dioxide is to increase its drinkability and change its structure into more creamy.

Nitrogen’s ability to dissolve in liquids is several times lower than that of carbon dioxide. What we have used at Browar Stu Mostów is advanced technological solutions that allow us to dissolve as much nitrogen as possible in beer. Right after opening and pouring the beer into a glass, nitrogen escapes as quickly as possible creating a cascade effect with a huge amount of tiny bubbles. After a while, nitrogen moves up whisking protein dissolved in beer. As a result of this process, creamy and long-lasting beer head made of tiny bubbles is produced, which is not possible in carbonated beers.

To fully enjoy the nitro beer, don`t forget to serve it in a right way:

– cool the bottle down to <7 ⁰C; don’t shake it;
– open the bottle quickly and pour the beer into a glass holding the bottle vertically;
– now you can enjoy the cascade effect, which produces a beautiful beer head of tiny bubbles.

This style is unique for its thickness. For this reason, the cascade effect takes place as if in a “slow motion”. High thickness and stickiness make the bubbles to go up slowly. It is recommended to wait a bit longer before pouring the beer into a glass to give the nitrogen bubbles more time to act. It’s not a waste time, cause the process itself looks quite impressive!

• Style: Spice Baltic Porter NITRO
• Parameters
  • Extract: 25,0 %
  • Alcohol: 9,1  %
  • IBU: 40
• Ingredients:
  • Malts: Munich, Pilsen, caramel 110-130 EBC, chocolate malt, coloring malt
  • Hop: Taurus (DE)
  • Yeast: bottom-fermentation yeast strain W34/70
  • Additives: cocoa, vanilla sticks, freshly ground tonka bean
• Appearance: dark brown, almost black with ruby ​​flashes and beige, very fine bubble foam, built up by a cascading effect
• Aromas: malty, bread-like, caramel, liquorice, toffee, nutty, cherries, raisins, molasses
• Mouthfeel:
  • thick, velvety smooth,
  • sweet liquorice
  • warming, bitter chocolate finish with cocoa, vanilla and marzipan

• Serving temperature: 12-17 ⁰C
• Glass: Tulip, Sniffter
• Foodpairing:
  

  Smoked, grilled meats, specifically beef, chili

  Cheeses: goat mature Pecorino cheese with pepper

  Dessert: crème brulee with redcurrant