BridgePort Old Knucklehead

Brewed by BridgePort Brewing (Gambrinus Company)
Style: Barley Wine
Portland, Oregon USA

Serve in Snifter

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Bottle - 2003 - Batch No. 11. Pours bronze with an edgy tan head. Caramel malt brown sugar sweet aroma with yeast (dough) and fruit hops, cinnamon. Hoppy acidic malt and toffee flavor with alcohol notes. Medium bodied and dry, fizzy palate.

(draught - 1 yr. lagering) Deep red beer; brownish, slight head. Very fresh nose, but subdued. Slight impression of piney hops. Taste is bitter, but with a lot of roasted/dark malts underneath the hops. The lagering seems to have very little done for the beer - there is a winey touch but the bitterness its too oppressive to give it a real chance. Very well bodied, oily, slick feeling. Still, to watery-thinnish texture for an aged Barley Wine. I would expect more.

Bottle @ fonefan tasting. Hazy reddish amber with a lasting off-white head. Aroma is sweet, malty, caramel, dried fruit, oxidized and alcohol. Flavor is quite sweet and moderate bitter. Sweet finish with warming alcohol. 110113

1999. Bottle, this was actually a sample from a cracked bottle that someone(nameless) left in the freezer. Cloudy amber pour. Aroma of honey, wood, fruit, and some alcohol. A bit of oxidation is noticeable on the nose and the tongue. Flavor is honey, fruit and some tartness. This is good. But not fabulous.

Soapy off-white head, a hoppy barleywine. Carmel malt, a little roast. 2003 edition, average barleywine. A complexity of hops, citrus,cinammon and fruit. It all sounds tastier than it really is. Maybe by itself at dinner. Ohio International gathering, thanks JSquires.

2003 bottle: Dark mohogany color with a thick frothy cream-colored thinly-lacing head. Aroma is mostly dry with an earthy pine English hoppiness and some mild caramel malty sweetness. The nose seems to be confused though as the elements don’t quite mesh together for some reason. Body starts with some caramel sweetness on the tip of the tounge, turning slightly acidic toward a dry, yet sticky, bitter finish. Don’t taste much alcohol here, but this is really lacking balance and complexity and just seems to be quite bereft in what I expect from a barleywine.

UPDATED: JUN 13, 2012 1999: 6.5 year old bottle. No head when poured. Rich and sweet nose, you can smell the oxidation easily, but it’s not too much of a bad thing with this beer. Subdued overall, perhaps even a bit bland at times, with some light plums and light alcohol apparency.

2003: Deep copper brown. Nose of red wine, cedar, and strawberries, but loses a point for too strong of an alcohol aroma. A little thin initially on the tongue, with not too much carbonation but also not much alcohol present on the tongue, so the experience is all kind of mellow and soft. Mild cedar, allspice, oak, and cranberry flavors. Fairly weak on the tongue, and flavor-wise there is not anything which stands out to make a strong case.

Bottle from Capone’s samples while receiving a Christmas gift on 12/21/08. Pours dark brown with off-tan head. Nose is ripe berries, caramel malt, hops, pprunes, bourbon. Tastes caramel malty, fruity, with hops, slight funk, cheese, and a medium rich, complex palate. Not world class, but I’d drink this one again any time, especially while receiving a special X-mas gift. And this is the amazing thing: as much as I liked this one, I can completely understand GlouGlou Burp’s rating before me. This one is a bit of an enigma.

Pours brown with a thin tan head. Smells of pesiny hops, some dark fruit, sweet malt. Tastes syruppy and overly sweet with a heavy astringency.

Courtesy of Gillard. First Bridgeport rating for me, wow, I’ve been drinking their beers for years. Pours deep copper with tan head. The aroma is caramel, 90L crystal malts, some roasty malts, very faint dark fruity esters and growing alcohol heat. The taste feels a bit creamy and ushers in roasty 90L like crystal malts mixed with caramel and some pine hop bitterness that leans toward grassy. The alcohol begins to grow and starts to become distracting. I get zero barrel agedness in this beer even though the label clearly states it.