Porter is a dark-coloured style of beer. Many breweries brew porters in wide varieties including but not limited to pumpkin, honey, vanilla, chocolate and bourbon. Specialized porter brews continue the tradition of aging in barrels, and the use of bourbon barrels is not uncommon. What is interesting about porter is that it can be made with both warm-fermenting ale yeast and cold-fermenting lager yeast. English-style porter is made with ale yeast and is heavily malted and lightly hopped. The bitterness experienced in an English-style porter is not necessarily from the hops, but instead from the use of black malt (malt roasted until black) English porters are dark browm to garnet and also contain fruity notes from residual esters.
Baltic porters, on the other hand, are lagers. This style of beer is widely consumed in the Baltic States and it was here that Baltic brewers originally swapped ale yeast for lager yeast as the use of lager yeast rose in 1980s. Baltic porters, like their low alc couterparts, are dark, malt, roasty, strong beverages with fruit undertones present, while some bitterness from black malt may be present.