Great British Beer Festival 2010
ABV: 12.5%
Origin: San Marcos, California, USA
Website: www.portbrewing.com
Port Older Viscosity
Port Brewing is one of the leading lights of West Coast craft brewing, particularly for the Lost Abbey series of special beers created by its head brewer Tomme Arthur. At GBBF, Older Viscosity was labelled a Lost Abbey beer, but it’s actually a plain Port production — in as much as an extraordinary 12.5% wood aged barley wine can be described as plain. Older Viscosity began life as a mere component in the brewing process of Old Viscosity, a more commonly available 10.5% strong dark ale that draws on the technique of ageing and blending inspired by traditional but now near-vanished European processes. Old Viscosity is a blend of 80% of a fresh beer fermented in stainless steel from two row pale, US and English crystal, Carafa III and chocolate barley malts, wheat malt and German Magnum hops, blended with 20% of the same beer matured in refill Bourbon barrels. Older Viscosity is the neat Bourbon-matured stuff, two vintages of which were available in cask at the Great British Beer Festival as part of that event’s most impressive array yet of US craft beers.
I sampled the 2009, a jet black beer that smelled of typewriter ribbons (remember them?), its aroma an intoxicating burst of vivid scents including dark malt, blueberry, mint and whiskyish hard liquor. A lovely slick palate was lightly chocolatey and oily, with rich fruit cake and sultanas, more berry fruit and some definite bourbon notes. A grainy swallow heralded a warming, sticky, fruit cake and rye bread finish that was long and alcoholic but very soft, gently and soothing, with a just a hint of wood. A beautiful, world class special beer that brought my first day at GBBF to a perfect close.
Read more about this beer at ratebeer.com: http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/port-brewing-older-viscosity/66624/
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