BridgePort Supris Blonde Ale

Formerly brewed at BridgePort Brewing (Gambrinus Company)
Style: Belgian Ale
Portland, Oregon USA

Pours a hazy light golden blonde with a loosely-knit white head that dissipates but is revived with the large amount of CO2. The aroma is fruity; apricots, chardonnay grapes. Phenolic;clove. The body is med., rather thick for the style. The flavors are a well balanced mixture of light bready malts and fruity esters which makes for a very enjoyable experience. The finish is soft and lovely. The overall beer is quite good. The only thing I wish is that it was a bit lighter and palatable.

Bottled. Pours a hazy golden color. Light yeasty lemon aroma with a hint of graininess. Slightly creamy mouthfeel. Some yeast and citrus flavors. Mild flavor with a slightly bitter finish.

Hoo-daddy, that’s a cloudy brew! Very light yellow coloring, ultra-pale at the bottom, topped with a puffy, meringue-like snow-white head. Lookin’ good. Aroma is quintessentially witbier-ish. Orange and lemon, with light spices, coriander and clove. Mellow, fruity, dreamy. Boards the mouth assuredly and plainly. Big yeast and juicy fruit. Sweet, then dry, crisp, refreshing, light, tasty. Creamy. Yummy, even. Medium bodied, long, pleasant finish. Gets more prominently bitter and dry further in, but the tastiness never diminishes. Quite likable, this. Has loads of appeal. But how do you pronounce it...?

Pours with a frothy, initially two-finger thick, pale tan colored head that sits a top a hazy lightly orange tinged, bright gold colored beer. The aroma is bright as well with notes of key limes, sweet grassy-grain notes, and even a touch of sweeter citrus fruits like tangerines or even some orange notes.

The beer is definitely a tad too cold right now, it is nice a cooling on this hot summer afternoon though. Light notes of citrus come through as well as some grassy-herbal hop notes. This beer finishes with a solid hop bitterness that adds a bit of a bite to this beer. Also in the finish is a bit of a tart note, which couples quite well with the lemony citrus notes. This beer has quite a bit more flavor than I was expecting, it is still very easy drinking though, and is certainly nice refreshment on a hot day.

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Good appearance from BridgePort - what a change in beer styles from an Oregon brewery. Typically the kind of change you find from a brewery not so mainstream, this is a total departure from the norm. Sampled in tulip glass from bottle. Head held nicely throughout sampling in beer clean glass. When ice cold, sample not as good as when brought to between 40-45 F. Appearance of head is nearly white and beer has a tremendous golden hazing glow. Beer very enjoyable with distinctly Belgian aroma upon consumption and opening of the bottle. As a bottle conditioned product, remember to rouse the yeast when the pour is about half gone and again with about 3/4 of the pour completed. Don’t miss the meat and potatoes of this beer at the bottom of the bottle. Prost!

4 ounce sample at the brewpub in Portland, OR. Light banana, light lemony-orange citrus aromas present as well. More acidic lemony notes in the aroma as this warms. Transparent yellowish color with virtually no head. What is there is small and white, and there is no trace of lacing. Pleasant floral, sweet banana-like flavor to start. Becomes rather chewy and a bit sticky in the middle. Some slight metallic noble hops are present in the end. Perhaps the most interesting of any of their beers...

Bottle courtesy of wohlfs. Clear pale yellow with minimal head. aroma is very sweet, candi sugar, fruit, and grassy/earthy. Flavor much the same, sweet, soft pils malt up front, with some citrus and grass through the middle amd finish. Body is too thin. Kind of a cross between a wit and pils IMO.

i’m a pretty harried little cellar-meister. i’ve got to serve up three to four beers a night to a demanding, albeit modestly refined palate. my own. in this agrarian corner of colorado, the selection is paltry, and in my wallet, one can easily scrape bottom with just a bit of grandiose spending recklessness. the menu planning can therefore be a challenge. it’s summer, and generally that means i’m out yard-working ’til late, often in a sunburnt frenzy-- in exaggerated motions like an anthill upset by a blundering bovine. to deal with these invariably tonsil-chafing thirsts, i maintain a roster of proven wiezens, pales and pils to provide ’first responder’ serious irrigation to the parched gullet. then on the opposite end of the drinking session --much later on into the evening-- i’ve got the snifter-style high-alcohol beers aplenty to ease me into somnolence. the challenge was to schedule an interesting, still refreshing, but not too serious a beverage to come between the kindergarten and calculus of an evening’s beer enjoyment. enter this pleasant supris. this is a nice little blonde in the tradition of grimbergen and leffe, a very nice quaffer in a category that’s hard to find in the united states. it’s a bland golden color-- thin yet lightly fogged-- like liquified potato chips, and the head is a brief snow-like covering of brisk carbonation. what slows the gulping is a rich, yeasty aroma-- starchy like a wardrobe of freshly pressed cotton shirts, a confluence of lemon and apricot, scents of both wood and flower-- both grain and dry, grassy hop. it frankly smells like a perfumed chamois cloth. on the palate it’s quickly quenching, unassuming; it’s sweet like a triple, with wheat-like crispness and wit-like yeastiness. what makes the harried cellar meister happy? supris, supris!