BridgePort Bourbon Barrel Old Knucklehead

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

Bottle: Ruby color, light head and lacing. Nose of baby wipes, citrus, oak and more baby wipes. Gross. The citrus gives it a healthy pH level so at least it "feels" safe. The flavor is sharp like cough syrup. Weird cranberry and sweet malts; Christmas fruits and spices mulled in a bad place. VERY medicinal. Awful. Like salty ice cream.

Appearance: Pours a reddish-brown body with a full, frothy, off-white head. Smell: Weak aroma with just some tired, musty pale malts, a pinch of white pepper, and a handful of sawdust. Taste: Pale maltiness with vague tastes of caramel and cinnamon spice. A few wooden popsicle sticks. Earthy bitterness. Light, nominal boubron characteristics are all insignificant. If it didn’t say "bourbon" on the label, you could easily miss it. Astringent, peppery finish. Mouthfeel: A bit beyond medium-bodied. Medium carbonation. Drinkability: No thanks. Hardly even average. I dare say the barrel aging didn’t pay off one bit.

*hated it, would never buy* aroma: smells like a pepper hop mix with a sweet malt backdrop.. smells like a headache. i like the dry pepperiness. app: ok. brown water water with a lil small hint of magic. flavor: pepper, acidic, i dont like it. it has no pleasing malt flavors. the hops just hurt but add nothing to the beer, the pepper is odd and out of place with the bad sweet malts. palate: who cares. its fine. overall: is a headache. i dont like this beer. none of the flavors are things people want to taste. bad balance.

pretty average beer,especially for a ba barley wine.i picked up the usual cotton candy,caramel,and some "ba" type flavors.

Bomber shared by toncatcher at the Alesmith Release;Thanks! Nose of plums, caramel, and woodiness; Amber with a medium off-white head; flavor of bourbon, hop bitterness, oak, caramel, and raisins.

Thanks to toncatcher for bringing this to the Alesmith Release party line tasting. Aromas were very sweet with dark fruit flavored malts. Flavors were similar but almost too sweet. Alcohol in the flavor too. Just OK

Shared at Cornboys Barley Wine Blind. Pours a super light brown with a soapy loking white head, a fairly far departure from the other BW appearances. Aroma is all sulfur, yuck. Top of the bad aroma with a thin watery body and tons of sulfur in the flavor. Wow we have a contender for worst barley wine.

Merritt Island Throwdown ’08: Bottle. Pours a caramel apple color, with a thin watery head, and decent lacing. Slight booze in the aroma, with molasses and brown sugar. Decent amount of hops. Grainy flavor, fair amount of malts. Hops are subdued, and there’s a slight tartness. Bourbon? Nah. Sticky, medium-body. Flavor is lacking overall.