It wasn't all that long ago that there was snow on the ground and I was reviewing another Baltic porter. But that one had vanilla in it. Too much, in fact, for my taste. Well, today we have another big, dark lager just like you'd find in the all the taverns and inns of Tallinn, but without any vanilla added.
This one is a collaboration between two relative newcomers here in Madison: Giant Jones Brewing Co. and Working Draft Beer Company. As the bottle notes, both breweries opened in the same year, 2018, and, since they are located only about two blocks from one another, a collaboration was inevitable.
I will refer the reader to my review of Lakefront's vanilla Baltic porter for more but the abbreviated story behind the style is thus: the Poles got hooked on English porter in the 18th century and started brewing it themselves. A hundred years or so later, lager brewing was in vogue so they applied it to their beloved porter and voila! They ended up with Baltic porter, although the Poles didn't call it that. They probably just called it "porter". It was some late-20th century beer nerd with a taxonomy fetish who gave it the appellation we have today.
Most, if not all, brewing collaborations I've witnessed or been given the behind the scenes scuttlebutt by a participant consist of the brewmasters standing around drinking while brewing minions of the host brewery do all of the work. Once that's done, the brewers join their superiors in the quaffing. I have absolutely no idea what the collaboration here consisted of but, since I don't think Giant Jones has much capacity for lagering whereas Working Draft does as they release a new pilsner every week, it seems, these days, my guess is that brewmaster Jessica Jones and her crew walked down the street to Working Draft on brew day.**
While most of the press Giant Jones garners centers around the fact that the brewery is owned by women, the really neat aspect for me is that Giant Jones is an organic brewery. As CEO Erika Jones explained, "All our ingredients and anything that has the potential to come into contact with our beer (such as no-rinse sanitizers) must be approved under the National Organic Program." Add in that GJ's beers are all 7%+ A.B.V. and you've got yourself some very niche products.
Organic beer hasn't taken off in the way other organic foods have. Go into your local food co-op and you're spoiled for choice when it comes to organic junk food. Organic cheese puffs? They've got them coming out of their tattooed, lobe gauged ears. Organic beer? Not so much. From what I've read, organic barley and hops are fairly rare. Still, Giant Jones offers a wide variety of beers at prices that are not ungodly so that situation may not be as dire as the articles I've read make it seem.
In an age when cans rule the packaging roost and hard seltzers and non-alcoholic beers are ascendant, Giant Jones with their big, organic brews in half liter bottles appear to be swimming against the tide. Let us hope they don't get eaten by a bear. You know, like some horny salmon do while swimming upstream.
My cat Grabby looked on as the loose, tan head atop my pour dissipated quickly leaving a glass of deep brown liquid with a red tint. The beer was clear! Still, it was too dark to discern any bubbles floating about inside. Cats have very good olfactory senses but, since she cannot speak Human, I have no idea what she was able to smell. For my part, I caught plum, malty sweetness, dark chocolate, and something like carob.
My first sip revealed a medium-heavy body with a sturdy fizziness. It didn't taste as sugary as the aroma hinted that it might be but there was some caramel sweetness from the malt. Chocolate, carob, and a rather strong stone fruit flavor were present as was a touch of roasty malt taste. On the finish, most of those flavors faded away and a little coffee, which I expected to taste earlier, faded in. Spicy hop flavors made themselves known at last and helped make for a very dry finish. There was that boozy heat to help the dryness cause as well. The beer is 8.2%, which is fairly substantial, but not deadly, yet my mouth had this strong astringent feeling and I felt as if I could breathe fire.
This was not what I expected. The coffee and chocolate flavors which I had anticipated to be more prominent were instead relegated to supporting roles. For me, coffee and bitter chocolate flavors should be at equal or greater strength than fruity ones in this style. Otherwise it had a clean lagery taste. Admittedly, it had been a while since I'd had a Baltic porter that was brewed anywhere near the Baltic Sea so perhaps I was misremembering...? Plus, there's more than one way to brew a Baltic porter, right?
However close this beer is or is not to, say, a Polish take on the style, it's got too prominent a fruity taste for my, er, taste. It should be a co-equal flavor to coffee and dark chocolate, not its superior. Still, this is by no means an awful brew and, if you are, say, a big fan of Placek ze Śliwkami, then I recommend this one for you. For me, my half a snifter above was enough.
Junk food pairing: Pair your Giant Jones/Working Draft Baltic porter with a bag of Kettle Brand Korean Barbeque potato chips. Their sweet-salt combo goes perfectly with this beer.
**My guess was wrong. See this tweet.
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