Bass No 1

Brewed by White Shield (prev. Museum) (MolsonCoors)
Style: Barley Wine
Burton-on-Trent, England

1902 bottle graciously shared by puzzl. I can’t believe I actually got to try this stuff. Though the uncorking was a bit of an adventure to say the least, the beer poured dark brown to black with the slightest bit of carbonation evident, along with some cork flakes (no biggie). Well the aroma here was one of the more complex ones I’ve ever smelled. Over the course of drinking only about 6-8 ounces of this stuff I smelled tobacco primarily, along with chocolate and red wine. Surprisingly enough, there isn’t that much of an oxidation character evident here. Taste has more tobacco character; very sweet with just a shade of sour character as well. Palate is somewhat watery, but I guess that’ll happen with something like this. Palate feels pretty sticky afterward, which seems counterintuitive to what I just said. Overall a pretty awesome experience. Can’t thank you enough Andy for sharing this.

Bottle as King’s Ale 1902, bought from eBay. After struggling with the lead I realized it was just really a cover for the cork and was pretty easy to remove. More difficult was the cork. Though it was still nice and damp after these 106 years, it was crumbly as pie, and left plenty of chunks in the neck as I removed it. I succesfully removed most of it with the first go, but the next 30% became about 50 pieces, and took nearly 5 minutes to get out.

Ended up pouring it through a metal strainer, which removed all but the smallest pieces of cork. So yeah, I drank those. The cork itself smelled wonderful and different, with deep tobacco corky notes, complex and extremely different. But the best was left for the aroma.

Unique and crazy, and still deeply pungent for so many years sitting around. Most beers (or any liquids, for that matter) this old would be near water at this point, completely lacking in any character besides nastiness. Not so with this beer. Layers of aromas dot the nose... tobacco, cider, old french cheeses. There is a unique musty attic note but never a hint of cardboard. Alcohol begins to burn on large sips but not without a pleasant sherry character and numerous subtle complexities.

The palate as thick and wonderful, though it’d be hard to deny that this beer is really hard to put down. Forget drinking the entire bottle myself, I can hardly make it through my 8 or so ounces.

The flavor has lots of deep, bitter dark chocolate, wet rose notes, and a fair bit of dryness to back up any residual maple sweetness that has remained. Complexity is undeniable, and any aromas I noticed are surely present in the taste.

As others in the past have noted, there is a slightly sour tinge that can come through, likely with the dregs at the end of the bottle. We haven’t made it that far yet, but I’d recommend pouring this with as little sediment as possible. We let ours sit for 4 days in the fridge, after many months in the cellar, and it seems to be relatively free of sediment.

In all, this certainly is a wonderfully complex and incredibly unique beer that any beer lover would do himself well to acquire. At only $50 shipped form eBay mine was a steal, and for tasting a 106 year old piece of history I couldn’t be happier with the purchase. Wonderful stuff.

This was the legendary Bass Kings ale 1981 drank at the Kulminator. It does not look like much of a legend, I can tell you that. Its dark, earth coloured pour is completely still and headless. The nose unveils deeply nutty flavours and generally toasted malts that remind of old cookies a lot. One would be very sparing not to mention the oxidation in here though. First, the beer is completely flat. Second, no hop aroma remains, but an odd, almost chalky bitterness manages to find its way through. Also, all along, old cave very earthy flavours detract from the not so complex reminiscent toastiness. So it is sweet and stale at this age with little fruitiness worth mentioning. In its defense, the alcohol was well concealed, but I can’t think of many other elements I enjoyed in here.

Bottle at Kulminator as Bass King’s Ale. I thought it was from 1989, but seeing the other ratings, it might have been 1981. Quite vinous aroma, citric fruit, and mango? Almost clear brown colour, very small head. Sweet, oxidized flavour, quite a lot of cardboard. Very late dried fruit aftertaste. I just do not like old beer.

Page 39 of Michael Jackson’s Great beer guide. The bottle I had and one for my cellar is called the Queen’s Ale and was an aged one brewed July 3rd 2002 on the 100th anniversary of the first one brewed. I am going to leave my assessment of this beer to one word, AMAZING. Only 178 of MJ’s Classic 500 brews to go. Also thank you Steve for this special brew and the day we had at the Museum Brewing Company.

Cask@Chelmsford BF. Strong and sweet aroma, dark fruit, some licorice, touches of toffee and caramel. Palate is quite sweet and warming, with some alcohol noticed, but well hidden. Lots of sweet dark fruit, caramel, brown sugar, with touches of something marmitey/vegemitey as Mes mentions. It is quite sweet, but i never found it sickly sweet, perhaps its a touch sticky. I like this.

A Mes rate: Cask at Chelmsford Beer Festival. This is right up there in the same league as JW Lees Harvest and Milton Marcus Aurelius as the best English beer I have had. Maybe not quite as good as the other two I mentioned but it really is superb. Wonderful thick mahogany colour yet still amazingly translucent. A thin rim of bubbles around the edge of the glass simply do not shift and give hints of the consistency and amazing mouthfeel to come. It’s a proper barley wine nose with a superb balance of lovely hops and sweet sweet malt with lashings of treacle toffee and marmite and just a hint of the high abv. Flavour is more of the same with even heavier marmite, superb tangy malt, brown sugar and beautiful warm alcohol. Rounds off with a very heavy and incredibly lengthy finish that is lovely and warm. Mouthfeel is utterly outstanding. What a way to start a festival. It’s all downhill from here...

Vintage 1981, 23 years old, bottled by Bass - Mechelen, 8% ABV; had it on 2004-06-05 at Kulminator
Dark amber color, brown hue, small frothy head, but peristent. Mature malty aroma, caramel, cookies, Christmas spices. Quite flat; ripe malt, drinkable but too old; Madeira; sweet (not syrupy). Strange experience.

I don’t think it’s fair to put together the ratings of the fresh beer and the old bottles…