It’s the second beer (first being Hallertauer IPL) brewed outside WRCLW. This time we have chosen one of the oldest and most prestigious Dutch breweries – Jopen from Haarlem. Their attitude to the beer revolution is similar to ours. They brew both new-wave and original beers as well as traditional and historic styles. We have got along immediately and decided to produce a style that would promote Polish craft brewing – the Baltic Porter! Of course, in a redefined version with rye malts!

	Jopen Rye Baltic Porter The origins of the Baltic Porter go back to the strong and dark beer from the British Isles, or the Russian Imperial Stout brewed as early as in the 18th century, which was affected by the embargo in the Napoleon times.

Style

The origins of the Baltic Porter go back to the strong and dark beer from the British Isles, or the Russian Imperial Stout brewed as early as in the 18th century, which was affected by the embargo in the Napoleon times. They tried to recreate the style out of the demand for stronger and full-bodied beer based on the Bock brewing methods. As a bottom-fermented beer with rich malty base as well as caramel and roasted tones, the style is in fact a stronger and darker version of the Bock. The bottom-fermentation method in lower temperatures allows for smaller amounts of yeast contents. As a result, the Baltic Porter is definitely subtler and more malty than its British Isles counterpart.

Even though there are some controversies as to where the beer originated, one thing is certain: Polish brewers have always produced excellent Baltic Porter. What’s more, in spite of the turbulent 1990s and first decades of the 21st century, the Baltic Porter has succeeded in securing an important place in craft brewing. Till this day, it’s considered the “black gold” and has earned the name for itself as the “brewing treasury of Poland.”

Malts/extract:

Similarly to Bock, the foundation of the Baltic Porter is the Munich malt, which accounts for the beer’s deep, malty and full-bodied style. Small amounts of caramel and roasted malts give the beer its dark but not jet-black colours. Coffee and chocolate tones are very typical of the Baltic Porter. With the extra rye malt added, the beer has gained slightly spicy and pumpernickel tones as well as velvety and sticky structure.

Hops:

It is common for Baltic Porters to have a wide range of hoppiness beginning with very subtle to quite strong (but never very strong) tones. Drawing on this tradition, we have added Polish hops – Iunga and Sybilla, to highlight its herbal and spicy profile with clear but refined bitterness.

• Style: Rye Baltic Porter
• Parameters
  • Extract: 22,0 %
  • Alcohol: 9,2 %
  • IBU: 47
• Ingredients:
  • Malts: barley malts: Munich; Pilsner; 120 EBC caramel malt; melanoidin malt; carafa special III Malt; rye malt; chocolate wheat malt;
  • Hops: bitter: Iunga (PL) /aromatic: Sybilla (PL) /
  • Yeast: W34/70
• Look: dark dark brown with tawny
• Aromas: wholemeal bread– pumpernickel; plum marmalade; dark malts – coffee, chocolate; liquorice; forest fruit: blackberries; dark cherries
• Flavours:
  • quite malty; velvety
  • quite thick, pumpernickel texture
  • distinct bitterness; bitter chocolate tones

• Serving temperature: 14-16 ⁰C
• Glass: Sensoric, Sniffter
• Foodpairing:
  

  Dishes: wide boar steak; venison steak served with chilli chocolate sauce

  Cheeses: Parmezan, Gruyère,

  Desserts: cheesecake with blackberries; walnut ice-cream with caramel