Thursday's Beer from the Other Side of the World- Baltika 6

St. Petersburg's Baltika brewery has a refreshingly non-western approach to branding their beers, they number them. #1 is the light lager, #4 is the dark lager, et cetera. I like this system because the beers have to stand up for themselves, without any flashy image. It's almost like a blind taste test.



My favorite is Baltika 6, the porter. Dark, aromatic, and very complex, few beers are more satisfying for a nightcap. It has a chocolate-toffee character, and it finishes smooth and sweet.

Baltic porter in general is like this, and most examples from Poland, Estonia, Lithuania and Russia rival Baltika 6 in quality. These are countries not really known as great brewing nations, but man does not live on vodka alone.

Even in Vladivostok.