How zaftig! How Żywiec!: Baltic Porter by Żywiec Brewery

It wasn't all that long ago that winter had just given way to spring and I was reviewing a different Baltic porter. That one was made right here in Madison. It had a strong stone fruit flavor, too much, in fact, for my taste. Well, today we have another big, dark lager, one that you will likely find in the all the taverns and inns from Międzylesie to Lubin. Or Lublin, for that matter.

My previous encounter with this style was with one brewed in collaboration by Giant Jones Brewing Company and Working Draft Beer Company. While it had all of the requisite flavors, they were out of balance for my palate, with a taste akin to plum leading the charge while coffee and dark chocolate, my favored Baltic porter flavors, came in much smaller doses. These tastes are provided by dark malts and add bitterness which, in combination with hops, acts as a nice counterpoint to the sweeter aspects of the beer from the paler malts. I rather doubt that the Giant Jones/Working Draft brew was extraordinarily sweet, as in I don't think it had more sugars in it than the imported Baltic porters that I recalled. But having a fruitiness as the primary flavor tricks my brain into tasting more sweetness than is actually present.

Hoping that my memory wasn't failing me, I figured I ought to trust but verify.

It having been quite some time since I'd last had a Baltic porter brewed somewhere near the Baltic Sea and having had a couple domestic versions that didn't appeal to me all that much, I sought out an imported version. I think Madison's eastern European population lives mainly on the west side so it was off to Woodman's West. I noticed that there wasn't any Baltika like I remembered being there previously with "previously" likely meaning 10+ years ago. Plus, they used to carry 2 liter plastic bottles of Russian beer, as I recall, as well but I saw none of those. Was this a boycott of Russian beer because Putin invaded Ukraine? Or the result of making more room for craft beer? Perhaps Russian beer is simply imported less and harder to get a hold of. Regardless, I was able to find Żywiec Porter, the only imported Baltic porter they had on hand. It is Polish so points for going back to the motherland on this one.

According to the vast repository of all human knowledge, Wikipedia, the Żywiec Brewery dates back to 1856 and the town of – quelle surprise - Żywiec which currently resides in far southern Poland. There was no state of Poland in 1856 and instead the town was part of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria. Today the brewery is owned largely by a corporation, holding company, or some other legal entity that has the word "Heineken" in it and, also according to Wikipedia, has a capacity of 5 million hectoliters which apparently comes out to a little over 4 million barrels.

Besides being a brewery that still uses green glass bottles, Heineken is a brewing leviathan. It's a multinational company that makes a gagillion barrels a year in facilities around the globe. I get the impression that Żywiec is to Heineken as Leinenkugel is to MillerCoors or AB-InBev or whatever conglomerate owns them these days. And just as Leine's corporate overlords have ensured that Summer Shandy is found in every state in the Union, Żywiec's have willed that their beer be available in Madison, Wisconsin.

I am getting better at pouring and was able to get a big head of tan foam in my glass. It was moderately firm stuff. The liquid was a deep, deep mahogany and of fine clarity as I was able to see a fair number of bubbles inside. The aroma was heavenly! Full of cherry and chocolate, it smelled like it had been brewed in collaboration with CocoVaa as it was as if I had just taken a deep whiff over a box of chocolate truffles. There were also hints of coffee and tobacco.

So far, so good.

One drop was all it took to know that this was a big, rich beer. It had a heavy body like the proverbial motor oil. My tongue got a goodly dose of malty sweetness that was a little caramel, but more like honey. Cherry lingered in the background as other, non-fruity flavors kept the sweetness at bay. Coffee flavors lent bitterness while some fizz and spicy hops did their part. Much to my delight, it was also faintly smokey. The cherry and sweetness slowly faded after swallowing which allowed notes of coffee and a hint of bitter chocolate to take centerstage. Those spicy hops returned as well, adding bitterness to make for a rather dry finish. A healthy alcohol burn also aided this effort.

Oh, it left a lovely bit of lacing in my glass.

This is an archetypal Baltic porter. For me, anyway. There was a lovely cherry taste to be had here but it never overpowered the other, more savory, malt flavors. The coffee taste was great and I really enjoyed how it, the fizz, etc. worked together to keep the beer from being a cloying mess. This stuff is a heady brew at 9.5% A.B.V. and it tastes like it. My whole body began to feel warm after half a glass, which was rather nice on a chilly spring evening.

Free of vanilla and with subdued stone fruit flavor, this is the Baltic porter I remember, that I prefer.

Junk food pairing: Żywiec Porter is a big, rich brew with a complex mix of flavors and so deserves to be paired with something endowed with an equally intricate set of gustatory components. Start with a plateful of Super Pretzel Mini Pretzel Dogs and smother them with warm Cheez Whiz.