Baltic Porters, a beer famous in Eastern Europe, is a unique brew for sure. Born out of the love and thirst for English porters in the 18th and 19th centuries, Eastern European and Northern European brewers took their own access to local ingredients and made a new style out of the original porter and in this, fundamentally changed the way we think about dark beer. For one, most of the Baltic porters are made with lager yeast, a sharp contrast to other porters in America and England brewed with ale yeast.

Baltic porters can also be higher in ABV, with the famous Polish Baltic porter Żywiec (pronounced “Shoe-Vee-Its”) being a whopping 9.5% ABV. So what is the history behind this beer style and how do modern Polish and American commercial brewers brew it?

We talk to two brewers: one from Poland and one from America to see what approaches they take with this fascinating style.

Guests

Mikal Kopik has 21 years of experience in the beer industry in its full scope – from consulting in the field of raw materials and brewing technologies, to designing beer recipes and selecting the best pre-production variants for the market. He works in cooperation with contract breweries and restaurants. In addition to all of this,  he also creates food pairings, is a beer mixology expert and educator, International beer judge and lecturer of postgraduate brewing studies. 

Jenny Pfafflin is a brewer and marketing & creative manager at Dovetail Brewery, a brewery in Chicago that specializes in Continental European styles and traditional methods. She is also an Advanced Cicerone—which dovetails her interests in the traditions of both brewing and beer service—and is also a Certified Sake Professional and makgeolli homebrewer.

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