21st Amendment Brewery and Elysian Brewing Company He Said Baltic-Style Porter

Hello beer lovers and welcome to another edition of the NorCal Beer Blog's brew review.

Tonight’s featured beer is 21st Amendment Brewery and Elysian Brewing Company He Said Baltic-Style Porter - Lager Brewed with Pumpkins and Spices. I stopped in my tracks when I saw this four pack at the store.  I’m a big fan of 21st Amendment Brewery and Elysian Brewing Company beers so a collaboration effort with pumpkin was RIGHT up my alley.  With Halloween approaching I am putting this (and other) Halloween seasonal releases ahead of other beers I’ve taken notes and photos of.

From the 21st Amendment Brewery website: “Lager brewed with pumpkin and spices. This box is a collaboration with Dick Cantwell of Elysian Brewing and contains two cans of He Said Baltic-style Porter and two cans of He Said Belgian-style Tripel, both brewed with pumpkin and spices.

That much we know is true.

Here’s what Dick said about the collaboration:

The story starts in 1999 when Shaun O’Sullivan walked into my Seattle pub. He’d heard about my massive pumpkin fest and wanted to get together and brew a pumpkin beer like no other: a Baltic style Porter brewed with pumpkin, caraway and cinnamon. In a light colored can.”

Let’s get started!

Appearance: Pours an extremely dark brownish red, nearly black with a huge and thick bone colored head and sticky lacing on the glass.

Aroma: Roasted malts, coffee, bitter chocolate, caramel, toffee, dark fruits, slight pumpkin spice and slighter pumpkin scents.

Taste: Roasted malts, dark bitter chocolate, slight coffee, pumpkin and spices.  There’s some kind of smoky component to this beer as well.

Overall: Although the pumpkin and spices take a less pronounced roll in 21st Amendment Brewery and Elysian Brewing Company He Said Baltic-Style Porter - Lager Brewed with Pumpkins and Spices, I liked it nonetheless.  I would put this in the “interesting” category.  At 8.2% ABV this may not be the traditional October beer (Halloween), but it is worth a try.  Plus, since you get two of these and two of the He Said Belgian-Style Tripel it is a nice four pack of goodness.

Cheers!

Mark Harvey

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