Baltic-Style Porter

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Location:Other
Category:Lager
BJCP Comparable Category:9C - Baltic Porter

Beer Style Description

This is the description of how the Baltic-Style Porter style of beer should taste, feel and look. However, there may be perfectly fine beers in this style that fall outside of these ranges and descriptions. This information is just to show the most commonly accepted ranges for the Baltic-Style Porter beer style.

Baltic Porter is brewed with lager yeast and fermented and lagered cold producing a smooth beer. A low level of oxidation, if harmonious with other flavor components, is acceptable.

  • Color: Black
  • Body: Medium to full
  • Malt Flavors & Aromas: Malt sweetness is medium-low to medium-high. Distinctive malt aromas and flavors of caramelized sugars, dark sugars and licorice are present. Roast malt attributes may be present at low levels, but any bitterness or astringency should be in harmony with other flavor aspects.
  • Hop Flavors & Aromas: Very low. Floral hop aroma can complement aromatics.
  • IBUs/Bitterness: Low to medium-low
  • Fermentation Characteristics: Due to its alcoholic strength, there may be very low to low levels of complex alcohol aromas and flavors and/or higher levels of fruitiness suggestive of berries, grapes and plums, but not banana. Fruity esters, DMS and diacetyl should not be present.
  • Common Ingredients: Generally lager yeast (cold fermented if using ale yeast, as is required when brewed in Russia). Debittered chocolate or black malt. Munich or Vienna base malt. Continental hops (Saazer-type, typically). May contain crystal malts and/or adjuncts. Brown or amber malt common in historical recipes.
  • Commercial Examples: Aldaris Porteris, Baltika #6 Porter, Devils Backbone Danzig, Okocim Porter, Sinebrychoff Porter, Zywiec Porter.

Brewing Properties of Baltic-Style Porter

These are the functional brewing properties of Baltic-Style Porter beers, as descided by the Brewers Association. These guidelines reflect, as accurately as possible, the historical significance, authenticity or a common profile in the current commercial beer market.

ABV
The alcohol by volume is shows the amount of alcohol this style of beer should have.
7.6 - 9.3%
Bitterness
The International Bittering Units (IBU) scale is used to approximately quantify the actual (not perceived) bitterness of beer.
35 - 40 IBUs
SRM
SRM is a scale for measuring the color intensity of a beer. Low SRM grains impart a pale straw color while higher values mean it will add a darker color to the wort. Learn more »
20 SRM
(39 EBC)
Original Gravity
Original Gravity (OG) is a measure of the sugar content in the wort before alcoholic fermentation has started to produce the beer.
1.072 - 1.092
Final Gravity
The Final Gravity (FG) is how much sugar is left over in the beer when fermentation is complete.
1.016 - 1.022

If you see an error in our data, please let us know!

Based on Brewers Association 2020 Beer Style Guidelines with changes. Used with permission of Brewer's Association.