Baltic Porter Day 2018 Day -1 - Imperium Prunum

Today a beer that is a legend.

Imperium Prunum from Kormoran Brewery

Imperial Baltic Porter aged with a specific dried plum with a smoky aroma called (Suska Szechlonska)

As an introduction let me cite Ratebeer:

At the moment Imperium Prunum has 292 ratings: 

Overall score 100/100; style 100/100

2016 – Ratebeer Best Award - gold medal – category – Best Beers in the world

If you look in the lists it’s the best Baltic Porter in the World and Polands #2 overall*.

I found it difficult to write about the beer that have been praised so much. There is a lot of hype and hate. But all professional reviewers were amazed when the first batch of Imperium Prunum hit the shelves in 2016. The brewery let us wait for the next one year. And this was the moment when I was also able to get a bottle.

Let’s just say that I wasn’t disappointed. Aroma of cocoa, chocolate and Belgian pralines. No alcohol detectable, Smoky notes in both aroma and taste. Rich, creamy texture with delicate and small carbonation. Roasted chocolate and small bitter ending. That beer is really a piece of art.

On top, there is this amazing bottle and the box. Just look at the photos. So far, one of the best beer packages I know.

Sadly, Imperium Prunum used to be one of the hardest beers in the world to get. Maybe not as hard as Pliny the Younger (released only in the San Francisco area once per year), but way harder to get than Westvleteren XII. Each batch of Imperium Prunum was about 8000 bottles, released just once per year. Guilty is process of aging (2 years). Whereas the basic price is quite OK (around 8 euro), online the beer got really crazy pricing going way beyond 10x of the original.

Having all these facts – you can imagine that getting a bottle of Imperium Prunum was very difficult in Poland and almost impossible outside.

Here, big thanks my friends from Browarium – Sklepy Piwne who kept a bottle of 2017 for me.

What I have learned this year is that the brewery has heard the clients. This year’s batch is doubled. Plus, they have also decreased the volume of the bottle. Now it is only 0.33. This will result in more bottles and better accessibility for a broader publicity.

Whereas, I appreciate the double batch, I believe that the 0.33 size is bullshit. I will anyway be able to get one bottle max and I will share my bottle with somebody. 0.33 size for sharing a beer is such a nonsense.

Now and important point – is it a great beer or is this a hype.

Why asking?

Because some of the very exclusive beers are more hype than the quality.

You ask where are the high ratings coming from then?

It is simple. Would you dare to give a bad rating, knowing that you had to go to the monastery on a certain day, directly after they call you to pick up the beer? All the effort travel etc. to give a bad rating?

Well, I would.

That is why Westvleteren XII is not the best beer I have ever tried. No doubt, this is a very good quad, but in my opinion, it needs to age. I have been tasting a few freshly from the brewery and the ones that were a year in my basement.

The fresh one is clearly more hype than greatness. Only aged Westvleteren lives up to the expectations.

On contrary Imperium Prunum is clearly the quality over the hype.

Finally – Batch 2018 is being released today. Run, run, run.

* In case you are interested number one is Polish Quad – Buba Extreme, also considered to be the 3 best Quadruple in the world

** yeah, I know all about only being able to get Westvleteren XII from the monks directly from the monastery in limited amounts, and one car cannot come to pick the beer more than once in every 3 months – the truth is that a willing tourist will find more than enough places to get Westvleteren XII in Belgium and online. I even have a bottle of Westvleteren XII in a bar in Toronto area. Price will be high, but you can get it.