So here’s a really cool beer: Samuel Adams Dark Depths Baltic IPA. What’s a Baltic IPA, you ask? Got me, but these days brewers are changing up beer styles looking for the latest gimmick so fast it makes my head spin faster than a centrifuge. Whatever it is, though, this one is pretty darned good, as you’ll see as you read further down.
The label on this one is enough to get your attention: an old-style deep –sea diving suit (much like the one that you had for your G.I. Joe as a kid) with a sea monster going through it. Anyway, here’s an idea of what Boston Beer was aiming at here. From the back of the bottle:
Across the cold and brackish waters of the Baltic, the English porter was transformed, from a mild ale to a dark and complex lager that confounds definition. Immersed in dark, roasted malts and a bold citrus hop character, these big and contrasting flavors are brought together with the smoothness of a lager for a brew that’s rugged, mysterious, and full of flavor.
Samuel Adams Dark Depths Baltic IPA, then, is a Baltic IPA with the hop profile of an IPA. The beer is part of the Small Batch series of bomber bottles; my sample is from batch 1 of the Baltic IPA. I paid $5.99 for it at Total Wine, which seemed a reasonable enough price.
True to style for Baltic Porters, this is a bottom fermented lager; also true to style it’s a strong beer at 7.6% alcohol by volume. Towards the IPA side of the equation, bitterness is respectable at 55 IBUs. More from the Sam Adams website:
Malt Varieties: Samuel Adams two-row pale malt blend, Caramel 60, Munich, Carafa I
Hop Variety: Zeus, Ahtanum, Saaz, East Kent Goldings, Topaz, and Simcoe
Samuel Adams Dark Depths Baltic IPA pours to an inky jet black color with a thick creamy tan head formation and a wonderful nose of coffee and dark roasty malt. Taking a sip, my taste buds are immediately attacked by a school of flavors: dark roasted malt, espresso, dark bitter chocolate, fruity prune, caramel, burnt toast, and in the finish a very grassy herbal hop aroma along with a splash of citrus, all followed up immediately by a long dry roasted malt and hop bitterness.
The interesting thing here is the way the roasted malt bitterness and hop bitterness merge in the finish, making for a very delightful beer drinking experience indeed. There have been some very tasty beers in the Samuel Adams Small Batch series, but Dark Depths Baltic IPA might just be the best yet.
And remember, try a new beer today, and drink outside the box.
*Pricing data accurate at time of review or latest update. For reference only, based on actual price paid by reviewer.
(B)=Bottled
(D)=Draft