Top Tastings 2009
ABV: 10%
Origin: San Marcos, California, USA
Website: www.portbrewing.com
Port Old Viscosity Ale
Port Brewing has its origins in the Pizza Port restaurant founded by Vince and Gina Marsaglia at Solana Beach, California, one of the pioneers of the craft-beer-and-pizza formula now found throughout the USA. The original Pizza Port brewery was opened in 1987 and as the business expanded through more restaurants and increasing external demands for beer, the Marsaglias decided to increase their brewing capacity, in 2006 taking over the old Stone brewery site in San Marcos, though they also still brew at Solana Beach. The story is complicated further by the fact that the San Marcos brewery is also the source of the über-cult Lost Abbey range of beers, produced under a separate brand.
Old Viscosity is a fine name for a strong and special ale and the beer behind the name doesn’t disappoint. It’s brewed from a complex grist of two row pale, US and English crystal, Carafa III and chocolate barley malts, with wheat malt and German Magnum hops, and two yeast strains, including White Labs California Ale yeast. My bottle came from the welcoming Ledgers Liquors store in Berkeley, a treasure trove of rare craft beers and speciality spirits.
The beer pours near-black with amber highlights and a creamy beige head. There’s a thick and distinctive aroma of chocolate, spiced prunes and raisins, leading to an intense but smooth palate, vinous and chocolatey, spicy around the edges and with a tangy tart note, oily orange flavours and emerging hops. There’s more of that tang as the beer goes down, and the finish has dark chocolate cake, marmalade and roast notes, with slowly unfolding hops, late prunes and chocolate and a whiff of bacon smoke. An impressively complex beer that more than fills its gravity with flavour.
Read more about this beer at ratebeer.com: http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/port-brewing-old-viscosity/19220/
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