547. Leinenkugel’s Big Eddy Baltic Porter

Leinenkugel’s has gotten into the fancy beer game with their Big Eddy series; the RIS was pretty solid, so we decided to give this one the ol’ college try. Our previous dalliance in the land of cheese features Red Lager. Sorry, outside of Leinenkugel’s, Wisconsin has a lot to offer.

Big Eddy pours a burnished burnt toffee with a moderately persistent tan head; the clear body offers some garnet highlights once the beer gets lower in the glass. The nose is toffee and dark fruit—mainly plum and raisin—along with a fair amount of brown sugar and caramelized fruit. Flavors start with chocolate and dark Belgian candy, giving way to fruit—fig, plum, and raisin this time—and brown sugar in the middle. There is also a touch of oxidized fruit, along with slight hints of cocoa. The finish has a touch of alcohol and a fair amount of lingering raisin. The body is rather chewy for a Baltic Porter; it gets a bit sticky as it warms, and doesn’t finish as clean as other examples we’ve had. The flavors, however, are delicious—as Elli points out, this beer will certainly get better with a little bit of age on it, although that might push it even farther away from being a Baltic Porter and more towards a Belgian Strong Ale—it already has some of the fruit flavors and characteristics as it is now. Still, a very good beer, one I’m glad we decided to try.

From the bottle: “A rich, malty brew with toffee, port, and chocolate notes and a dark fruit finish.”

From Leinenkugel’s website: “With a blanket of malt flavor and notes of toffee, cocoa, caramel, toasted bread and sherry fruit flavors, Big Eddy Baltic Porter is a hearty dark beer that has a clean lager finish.”

ABV: 8.5%
Malts: Blend of 2- and 6-row Pale, Munich, Crystal Rye, Roasted Barley, Special B, and Chocolate Malt
Hops: Cluster zand Mt. Hood
Other: licorice root

(12/6/2012)