Port Brewing Old Viscosity

Brewed by Port Brewing/Lost Abbey
Style: American Strong Ale
San Marcos, California USA

Rating #900. Bottle from dirty_martini - Thanks! Pours a dark brown, near black with a small tan head. Nose is rich and full of roastiness, vanilla, and seemingly that bourbon sweetness from a barrel aged brew... Smooth and creamy on the palate with flavors of cocoa, coffee, roast, and moderate sweetness into bitters. Nice level of complexity and very pleasant to drink.

From bottle, blind tasting at Papsoes - beer no 10. Pours black with a red hue and a lacing light brown head. Vanilla and chocolate aroma. Flavour holds a decent liqourice flavour to the smooth chocolate and mild vanilla. Finish has a persisting chocolate smoothness. No bitterness from hops, perhaps some from the roasted coffee notes.

Bottle Porus a deep blacl of course with a thin but lasting tan head. Huge vanilla and licorice roasted aroma. Flavor was big roasted and plenty of coffee. Smokey bitter trailer. Moderte palate and a bit lively on the carbonation. Bice overall though Thanks Jake

Bottle (Bager) at ØLklubben. Black - brown edges. Brown sugar, high burned, high hoppy, fantastic aromatic, raisins, engein oil, bourbon, chokolate. Nice.

(Bottle 65 cl) Courtesy of Degarth. Cloudy, dark brown - close to black - with an off-white head. Woody, bourbon-like aroma with hard roasted malts. Quite full-bodied, hard roasted malt accents - almost burned - with bourbon accents and a bitter finish. There’s an ashy twist also. Still incredibly yummy. 021107

The second I poured this I knew I was in for it. Brown-to-black in color with a minimal head... quickly faded away into a ring of chocolate-colored bubbles. While you’re pouring it, you can actually see how thick and (true to it’s name) viscous it is. The aroma was a complex (almost confusing) array of roasted malt, burnt toast/smokiness, coffee, chocolate, molasses, some sort of leatheriness, and an interesting medicinal alcoholic hint. Ok and now for the flavors... just ridiculous and over the top maltiness with a nice rich sweet molasses/brown sugariness. A lot of smokiness, burnt grains, a very apparent wooden-barrel-ness, a certain leatheriness, with overtones of coffee, chocolate, soy sauce, a subtle spiciness... overwhelming. Maybe my favorite aspect of this beer is the SUPER slick molasses-like mouthfeel... starts out like some sort of liquid candy and then turns to a soft champagne-like bubbliness... just awesome. Yes, it certainly is an insanely "BIG" beer. But I didn’t have too hard of a time finishing it...

Poured a pitch black with a thin tan head that hugged the edges of the glass. It looks like motor oil being poured into the glass with no light being let through. It has a pretty big aroma of dark malts, chocolate, bourbon and molasses. The flavor on this one is big of dark malts, bittersweet chocolate, and bourbon. More subtle flavors of wood, caramel, and dark fruit come to mind as well. It has a real oily viscous feel to it on the palate with a nice big mouthfeel. The finish has a bitter kick from some hops and the bourbon, but is really smooth all the way down. This is definitely a big beer to be sipped on as you can feel the alcohol warmth all the way down. I really enjoyed this one with the barrel aging. I want to try the Older Viscosity now.

20071105 Bomber from Julio’s. Nearly black, chestnut edges, with small, thin, but determined head. Aromas of prune, bourbon, molasses, some background hoppiness (c-hops?)...mild aromas though that do not give away the secret beast beneath. This is not a far step away from hoppier imperial stouts like Smuttynose that are alcohol and bruising hops forward but adds pleasant complexity with wood, tobacco, and more bourbon. Finishes long and boozy with a late and somewhat harsh kick of alcohol. Glorious. This is significant because I don’t usually note bourbon flavors in these barrel aged beers. I’m also a bit confused because my label says ’aged in bourbon barrels’ but the label pictured here does not - but it definitely says Old Viscosity, not Older. At any rate, the beer is lush, hearty, and lives up to the label’s billing of big, big , big.