A tasting next week will give craft beer lovers tastes of two versions of an unusual brew -- one a legendary one that's no longer being made and the other a new product that honors it.

Stylewise, it's Baltic porter -- sometimes called imperial porter -- that will be featured at the regular Wednesday free tasting at Bocktown Beer & Grill in North Fayette.

Owner Chris Dilla is bringing out her stash of the defunct Heavyweight Brewing Co.'s Perkuno's Hammer. It was one of the first Baltic porters to be made in this country by Tom Baker at his little New Jersey operation that became famous for its unusual "big beers in small batches" before he closed it in the summer of 2006.

But Mr. Baker and the person who helped inspire him to brew a Baltic porter in the first place, beer writer Lew Bryson, collaborated with Perkuno's fans Ron Barchet and Bill Covaleski, founders of Victory Brewing Co. of Downingtown. This summer they brewed up a big batch of similar Baltic porter that they released as "Baltic Thunder" (a distributor with rights wouldn't let them use the old name).

The new recipe, available around town in 22-ounce bottles (year round) and on draft (periodically), was tweaked. For instance, while Mr. Baker added some Roman beans (per his research into the original Baltic porters), Victory is using black-eyed peas. The new brew is slightly stronger, too -- 8.5 percent alcohol by volume instead of 8 percent.

Tasting attendees can compare the two against a regular porter, in what a Bocktown server playfully dubbed a "diagonal tasting."

Vecenie Distributing's Tony Knipling, who will lead the program, says that while most porters are ales and tend to have a fruity taste from the ale yeast, Baltic porters are lagers that are aged longer and usually smoother.

"It's still a fairly obscure style," he notes, explaining that it originated in the 1700s in the strong porters exported from Britain to Russia and northeastern Europe that still are popular there.

Yet only in 2006 did the Great American Beer Festival add it as a category for its annual brewing competition.

But Baltic porter has its fans, including Ms. Dilla, who jokes about how she should sell on eBay the nearly a case of 12-ounce bottles she's hoarded since she opened Bocktown in 2006.

She may sell a few but limit them to one per customer. (In the meantime, as she notes, Mr. Baker soon is to open a new brewpub in Philadelphia's Mt. Airy neighborhood.)

Next week's and all Wednesday tastings at Bocktown run from 6 to 8 p.m. (www.bocktown.com or 412-788-2333).