BridgePort Bourbon Barrel Old Knucklehead

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

22oz bottle, courtesy of wickedpete. Thanks, Pete! Pours a bright, dark orange-amber color; khaki head with patchy fine-bubbled lacing. Tea-like malts, earthy malts and red fruits in the aroma. Medium-to-full mouthfeel: loads of dried red fruits, tannic tea-like malts, and brown sugar; the barrel presence is slight; tannic tea, mostly, with some chewy malts. Lengthy finish, showing tea and maltiness and sugar.

Pours an amber body with a moderate head. Aroma and flavor is of pale, caramel malt with a good presence of dark fruit fig, raisins and plum. Bourbon is light and tasteful, its the finish that hurts this one its a bit burnt and doesn’t seem to come together well.

Bottle. Pours a medium clear caramel color with no head. Malty anroma with caramel and light wood notes. The taste was the same and NO bvourbon and sweet woody notes in the finish. Not bad, but it feels like false advertising.

Bottle courtesy of Gillard. Dark amber with a light brown head, very small and disappears almost instantly. Tropical fruits, dark esters, caramel, toffee and some roasty/toasty notes. No sense of the ABV in the aroma, for me. Flavor profile is similar, tons of tropical and dark esters, caramel, roasted malts and some perfume notes. I like the mouthfeel, but I feel that it’s thin at points and maybe that’s a result of the barrel aging, I don’t know. Otherwise, where is the oak or barrel aging hints, anywhere, in this beer? ABV becomes very noticeable midway and throughout the finish, astringency picking up along the way.

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.

Pours ruddy brown with no head. The nose is subtle fruits and caramel. A hint of bourbon. The flavor is the same, with the bourbon being way too subtle. Decent, but not as good as hoped.

Very big malt aroma, roasted malts, nutty and big earth tones. Bourbon gives a earthy and woody quality, more like a scotch then the buttery bourbon that most get. Body is a bit lighter, a bit of alochol present. Pours dark mohagany with a small bubbled beige head.

Lasting soapy head on medium cloudy golden body. Expecting it darker, really. Bourbon aroma. Above average mouthfeel. A bit drying and boozy. But essentially, this is ale conidtioned in wood, it works, though it is one dimensional.