Packaged in 1-pint brown casket, moderate-bodied sienna-hued beige-headed Baltic porter seems closer to brown ale or watery barleywine. Overripe raisin, sugarplum, sour grape and cola nuttiness pleat sweet frontage. Musty cellar-like dankness consumes soy-sauced caramel-toffee malting.
All posts by John Fortunato
STERKENS DUBBEL ALE
Ambitious dark fruit-spiced bronze-hazed Belgian elixir with perky carbonation (meant to be poured slowly), heavy Brussels lace, and faint caramel waft gains lively clove-allspice seasoning, chewy fig-date-raisin cluster and wavered pecan-cola nuttiness. Serve to risk-taking Brown Ale lovers.
(STERKENS) BOKRIJKS KRUIKENBIER
Top-fermented billowy-headed amber-glazed Belgian strong ale with firmly centered whiskey malting and candi-sugared yeast thicket clouding lemon-soured apricot-peach tang. Ginger-snapped banana-clove-coriander wisp adds luster, but tentative dry-hopped citric finish merely teases tongue, lowering complexity.
STEPAN RAZIN ZOLOTOYE LAGER
Slick grain-toasted pale lager receives creamy caramel surge, coarse hop spicing, and cedar-burnt snip to prop up diacetyl citric tang. Mild metallic acidity and vegetal tinge disrupt flow.
STEPAN RAZIN PORTER
Precarious raisin-breaded brown-bodied porter pits cheap cognac sweetness against dry mocha, stewed prune, and chocolate liqueur illusions. Maple-sapped anise stickiness gets cloy, but hazelnut tease adds nice touch to earthen grain bottom and dried fruit finish. A bit light for its class.
STELLA ARTOIS PREMIUM LAGER
Though many Belgian brews rely on stone-fruited effervescence, this musty lager suffices blue collar American tastes with its taut citric hop bitterness and dry honeyed malt insinuation. Simple mineral water stream filters pungent yeast timbre, moderate barley-rye resonation, and earthen barnyard waft.
STEINLAGER PILSENER
Accessible medium-bodied dry pilsner with long lasting head, delectable citric zest, and lingered mineral graining. Fresh water cleansing seeps into gentle barleymalt sweetness and mild grassy hop bitterness. A fine middle of the road alternative to Bud-Coors-Miller slumming.
(STEINHAUS) MISSION ST. PALE ALE
Mildly piney-hopped apricot-pear-orange tingle gathers floral influence to serene sweet caramel malt finish.
(STEINHAUS) FAT WEASEL ALE
Disappointing oxidized waft and putrid hard-candied bruised orange souring corrupt dubious golden-hued strong ale. Scurvy dry-lagered rye-wheat base and tepid lemongrass funk further denigrate metallic 7% alcohol-smitten weasel. Similar to nearby Pizza Port’s only bad beer, Das Boot Helles Lager.
(STEENBERGE) TIKKA GOLD PREMIUM LAGER
A step down from multi-dimensional Belgian ales, lazy straw-hazed mainstream fodder lacks distinct character to soapy spring-watered finish. Lightweight trash finds sweet-corned pilsner malts going cloy and flaccid lemon-peppered hops getting limp. Closer to dank Eastern European fodder. Accompanies spicy Indian food well.
(STEENBERGE) PIRAAT ALE
10.5% alcohol bodes well for highly carbolic wheat-styled ale. Honeyed yeast sinew enriches burgundy-sherry sweetness and herbal hop resins reminiscent of French-styled farmhouse ales. Spiced pear, apple, and peach get white-peppered bittering above banana dalliance.
(STEENBERGE) MONK’S CAFE FLEMISH SOUR ALE
Brewed specifically for Philadelphia’s terrific Monk’s Cafe, indelible russet ruby Flanders Oud Bruin plies vinous green-yellow-red grape tannins to lactic-soured oaken vanilla insistence, allowing puckered lemon-dried apple, cranberry, and cherry tartness to reach fruition over leathery horseblanket acridity. Tertiary white peach, banana and raspberry melee begets dry sherry finish of debonair moderation.