Lost Friend's Varnas Baltic Porter

One of the lesser known breweries in Colorado Springs is Lost Friend. Its location isn’t really central, unless you’re running errands in this neck of the woods—the harrowing drive down North Academy makes this one a little tougher to get to, but well worth the trip.

Varnas Baltic Porter is true to the menu’s description: “Rich coffee and roasted caramel smell, chocolate and cold brew coffee flavors with a dry finish.” I gotta hand it to them, it isn’t often that the menu describes a beer accurately. Well, I guess my job is done here.

Not so fast! This beer deserves credit, and so does the brewery. This is one of Lost Friend’s flagships, and I’m pretty sure it’s the only Baltic porter on anyone’s flagship menu in town (Cogstone Brewing has a Baltic porter as well, and I’ll be reviewing that shortly, but I believe it is a seasonal).

Anyone from Colorado who has been up in the mountains, far from the yellow and brownish snows of the city, will have experienced tasting a mouth full of Rocky Mountain snow. Or maybe I’m the only one who’s fallen on his face while snowshoeing in the backcountry. Regardless of our snow eating habits, the taste of fresh powder is what I get on the back end of this beer. I mean this in the best possible way, of course. Before the taste of clean mountain snow hits, there is a nice chocolate and coffee mix, but it

leans more toward the roasted chocolate side of the spectrum. The beauty of this one is that there is a perfect balance between the slight hop bitterness in the background and the flavors of the grains. Nicely done, brewmaster, nicely done. I’m not sure why hop bitterness runs roughshod over so many beers in this town, but Lost Friend has taken back control.

The ABV comes in at 8%, but it’s not boozy at all. I’m glad this is a flagship because I’m just as happy drinking this on a 90 degree summer day as I am on a snowy day in November. If they just brewed this in the Fall and Winter, it’d be a tragedy. This Baltic porter and the Wee Heavy (to be reviewed later), are my favorites on the Lost Friend menu. If they keep brewing them, I’ll keep coming back! (Who am I kidding? I’d be back regardless.)