New MKRKIT Ursa Baltic Porter

Over the weekend we released our latest MKR KIT, the Ursa Baltic Porter. Baltic Porters are related to the Russian Imperial Stout. They often share similar malts and hops, but Baltic Porters are fermented with a lager yeast. Not long after the porter style was popularized in London, it made its way on trading vessels on
routes throughout the Baltic region. The local brewers began making their own version of the porter from England, but used lager yeast as it was customary in the region at the time. Over time, the Baltic Porter became its own recognized style.

The Recipe

Grain Bill
Munich 600g (33%)
Vienna 600g (33%)
Caramel 60L 200g (11%)
Special B 200g (11%)
Carafa II Special 200g (11%)


Hop Bill
Saaz-60 (3.6%aa), 24g, 46 IBU


Yeast
Saflager S-23, 11g

The base malts used in this recipe are Munich and Vienna. These two darker base malts yield rich flavors of toasted bread and biscuit and still have the diastatic power to convert the starches in the grain to sugars. These comprise 2/3 of the grist, which so far as base malts go, is a pretty low percentage. Next we have our caramel malts, Caramel 60 and Special B. Caramel malts are created by kilning non-dried barley. The latent moisture in these malts convert the starches into non-fermentable and richly complex sugars. Caramel 60 is a medium color malt that yields a sweet caramel flavor and a red color. Special B is a complex and dark caramel malt from Belgium. It brings notes of dark fruit, raisins, and deeply caramelized sugar. Last is the Carafe Special II. This is a dehusked dark malt that brings a velvety chocolate flavor without the bitterness and astringency of dark malts that still have their husks. So lets list all the flavors we can expect out of the grains:

  • Biscuit
  • Toasted bread
  • Sweet caramel
  • Dark fruit
  • Deeply caramelized sugars
  • Raisin
  • Velvety chocolate

Next up are our hops. This recipe doesn’t call for a lot of variety, but what it does have is stellar. Saaz is a highly sought after noble variety from the Czech Republic with spicy, earthy, and floral aromas. It is a low bitterness hop that provides an exceptional-yet-back-seat-role in this malt-forward beer.


Finally we have the lager yeast. We are using the S-23 strain which comes from a brewery in Switzerland. This produces incredibly clean fermentations with very little character from the yeast.


The Baltic Porter is available for a limited time on the BEERMKR app store!

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