BridgePort Stumptown Tart (Cherry Wheat)

Formerly brewed at BridgePort Brewing (Gambrinus Company)
Style: Fruit Beer
Portland, Oregon USA

Serve in Flute

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Pours a odd clear orangish red yellow with a tight but thin white head. Nose is odd...thin, not all that inspiring, not a lot of cherry. What I do get is some prickly wheat with faint hints of slightly sweet/tart fruit. Not getting much in the way of oak. Taste is light, wheat, faint tart with some sweetness that has that yeasty belgian sugar characteristic. I had really been looking forward to this beer after thoroughly enjoying last years marion berry release. Not a offensive beer by any means, just a bit plain jane and needs way more cherry imho.

UPDATED: JUN 29, 2010 Looks like fresh grapefruit juice, like a muddied hazy dark pink. Belgian Tripel nose, no detectable fruit. Looking at these other ratings confuses me. I was hoping for a drying and powerful tart experience, but all I get is a soft and fluffy dry tripel with noticeable oak. No fruit. Had I been blindfolded I wouldn’t have even thought that there was fruit in here. Very nice beer, but not a fruit beer. 063010 with a year on this beer, there’s a pronounced fruit skin aroma and a slick canned cherry pie filling flavor.

I actually quite liked this beer, though I would label it a sour beer instead of fruit beer. The cherries really make the body so face squinching bitter, and not really sweet. However, this doesn’t taste like cherries per se.

Oregon Brew Fest: reddish orange with fizzy white head, aroma of cherries, flavor has tons of sour cherries mixed nicely with pale malt.

A wonderful belgian nose shows sour cherries green apples and some age, I would not pin down oak casks if I did not know but can definitely pick it up now. The intro is almost flanders in style but quickly detours and shows slight oxidation and beautiful sour cherry and sour apple flavors. Which I find quite refreshing in the heat. The malt is light but fitting and the hops are spot on. Overall a very good Belgium style fruit beer.

22 oz bottle via Fred Meyer. I cannot believe they even had this. They never have squat there, let alone limited release micros. YeehaW!. Pours a hazy amber with a small white head. Nose is sour fruit..cherries, apple, and a bit of wood. Taste is ...diffent. My first sip tells me this is not your typical over the top fruit beer..it is more of a hop vs fruit...balanced to the point that they almost cancel each other out..or do they just blend perfectly..hmm, lets try a few more sips. Well i can see people either loving or hating this beer. Personally i find it TOO balanced. I either like beer to have a tiny bit in the fruit dept, or go over the top and be all fruit. THis one is just too balanced for me. Body is medium, carbonation is moderate/high. Finish is pretty dry. I think if i had another bottle i would lay it down for a year. Abv is well hidden so gets extra credit for that..i would have guessed 6.3, not 8.3%!

Pin keg @ Belmont Station. I watched the brewer get sprayed with beer when he hammered in the pin. This had been aged one year. Great tart flavor and aroma, mild berry, a little hop. This beer is wonderful aged a year. I wish I had bought one and put away for a while.
Earlier Rating: 7/3/2009 Total Score: 2.3
Bottle, Hazy orange aroma is tart and cherry. Flavor is like eating canned pie cherries. I get nothing else, This beer may age great, but not drinking well yet.

UPDATED: JUL 30, 2009 Bottle... Poured a hazy, slightly, off-orange with a white head that dissipated quickly. A tart aroma with a little cherry sweetness and a spiced, yeasty funk. Palate seemed a little conflicting as far as the carbonation and smooth, soft qualties. A wheat character up front and sweet, cherry flavor towards the end. A nice spiced quality but a little off with a metallic finish. I wish the cherries were more evident. Couldn’t really detect anything from the oak barrels. Bridgeport had gotten criticized for the ’08 Stumptown Tart with marion berries, but I really dug that one, I feel like they stretched it thin with this one. I’m hoping six months to a year on the second bottle I bought will do this at least a little justice.