Bass No 1

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

Serve in Snifter

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UPDATED: NOV 15, 2008 Hand bottle thanks to Craig. What a rare opportunity this is to try a great beer that has almost gone out of existence after over 100 years. Yet they still make Bud Light, but I digress. Pours a deep ruby shade with a tiny hint of a head forming. The aroma is very sweet, full of candies and chocolate, also some fruit aspects. The taste was very smooth and quite nice; mostly a very sweet brown sugar and toffee, tons of fruit, almost vinous, and there is a hint of burnt malt and sourness in the finish. A very good beer, a dessert that would fit into the finest establishment. I am honored to have the chance, let’s hope I can try it again. Thanks Craig.　 Additionally, I have learned that the last time they brewed this beer was 1997, so probably a 1997 version drank in 2007.

Hand bottle from cgarvieuk. Pour multiple shade of reds and browns with zero. There’s carbonation, but not head. You can see the oily, thick body though. Very impressive. Big, strong, and sturdy nose. I got toffee, chocolate, cherry, and a plethora of other fruity goodness. Lots of chocolate and toffee flavors here. And alcohol. Kind of on the boozey side. And not as complex at the aroma would leave you to believe. Still pretty tasty. Very big and rich. Oily. and warm. Clean finish. Man, I really wish I would have shared this. Sorry guys.

UPDATED: SEP 4, 2008 [From mini keg @ RBESG Grand Tasting] Dark clear brown with medium beige head. Sweet vinious with caramel, roasted malt, ripe fruits and port notes. Delicious. [81 vintage @ Kulimnator. thnaks for sharing Kim!] Hazy brown with tiny beige quickly disappearing head. Sweet and vinious aroma with dark fruits, caramel and port notes. Sweet flavor with plums, prunes, caramel and port notes. Good complexity and quite vinious. What a treat. 7, 3, 8, 4, 15 = 3,7

Father’s Day weekend 2008 gift to self, part 1. 25cl handbottle from a 5L mini cask with a big THANK YOU to cgarvieuk for this rare treat! Pours a deep burgundy with a thin choppy head of large loose bubbles, and one of the most interest after pours I’ve ever seen, with a razor thin cream colored head rising moments later; a fairly dense and uniform pin-sized covering of lace remains. Aroma is strong toffee, caramel, candied raisin, pureed plum, and a fermented porridge of dark fruits. Finally moving in for a taste, it reveals that many of those same qualities persist. The flavor is very low on carbonation as expected, but holds up well to allow the various components to come through. As it reaches room temperature this really opens up nicely. A bit more fermentation comes through than I’d hope, but overall this is a nice sipper, and its easy to see why this has the place of high regard in the beer world that it does. Thanks again Craig for the opportunity to try the legend!

Well after much research the bottle i had in the kulminator which they stated as 1981 Kings ale, seems most likly to be Bass number 1 bottled into the old Kings ale bottle from 1977. Red/light brown in colour, ovaltine malt nose with a little fruit. mellow oh so mellow soft and gentle fruit malt, very juicy very fruity, and oh so smooth and drinkable. the depth and smoothness of this was remarkable. And no way would i guess the alchohol levelfrom this. Wonderful ...

Mini Cask at home ... Huge thanks to the Brewer for making this possible Deep scarlet brown ... Sweet rich toffee vine fruits nose ... Sweet toffee rich and deep ... lots of vine fruits ... little warmin ... wondefull mouthfeel ... Wonder if i should hand bottle this to see how it ages over 5 years ... Its lovely ...maybe not as complex as the Aged bottle but still worthy of a 4.5+ score.

1981 bottle of "King’s Ale" purchased for 4 euro at Kulminator. Poured from about a foot above the glass, this produced a big bubbled fizzy head; more carbonation than I expected from a beer this old. Clear dark ruby accents on the edges of a semi-opaque beer in the glass. Head mostly diminishes. Decadent port smells with brown sugar, sugar cane, and sugary prunes; this smells richly sweet, everything decadent and melded together. Almost watery in texture, much has been fermented out; lighter than expected. The flavors, however, were very full and well-defined: a light golden raisin sweetness at first; honeydew melon freshness in the middle and into the finish was surprising considering the darkness of the malts on the nose; dark and acrid prune notes are a backbone but never take center stage, which is different from most barley wines I’ve had; soft, lactose and mango sweetness lingers in the finish. Alcohol warming in the belly late. Finish also has some dusty acridity on the back of the tongue which I enjoyed as a counterpoint to the surprising brightness of the body. Good beer, but not phenomenal. That being said, maybe I have no idea what I’m talking about; the other ratings on here from Kulminator bottles are much lower than mine. I thought it held up quite well over the years, as opposed to other raters. Oh well.

Thanks to Puzzl for sharing this with us NYE. Black, no carbonation whatsoever. Aroma and flavor is plum, tobacco, raisens and chocolate. No oxidation to speak of. Some soy sauce as well.

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.