Victory Red Thunder

I picked up a bottle of Victory Red Thunder, a red wine barrel-aged baltic porter, from Al’s of Hampden. The beer pours a dark brown color with red hues and a frothy cream colored head. The aroma consists of chocolate, toasted malts, red wine, oak, and hints of vanilla. The taste is bold with strong chocolate and toasted malts hitting on the front end with some coffee interlacing. A red wine dryness and flavor arrives on the finish with oak and vanilla hints. The after taste leaves a bit of alcohol lingering on the tongue and more red wine, and that alcohol definitely comes back in the burps. The alcohol content is 8.5% ABV. I’d say that this was definitely a winner from Victory, as the baltic porter benefited very well from the red wine barrel aging process. The red wine interlaced well with toasted malts and chocolate, complementing each other nicely.

Les Trois Mousquetaires Porter Baltique

I received a bottle of Les Trois Mousquetaires Porter Baltique as part of the Michael Jackson Rare Beer of the Month Club. The beer pours a black color with a lofty and frothy tan head that leaves lacing on the glass. The aroma consists of toasted malts, molasses, chocolate, vanilla, caramel, and grassy hops. The taste is bold and very chocolaty with a mixture of milk and dark chocolate. Plenty of toasted malts with a hint of smoke come out to play before being smoothed out by caramel and vanilla. The after taste leaves some grassy hops behind. The alcohol content is 10.0% ABV. I was entirely impressed this beer and the amount of flavor packed into a glass. Some much chocolate was present on the tongue, but toasted malts took the starring role, all tied together with caramel, molasses, and vanilla flavors.