4th Anniversary Oak Aged Imperial Porter
Bridge Road Brewers

 

Strong copper/bronzed dark brown colour with a surprisingly smaller head than I as expecting. Lacing is good. Retention moderate to low.

Oak-like almost pine aroma intertwined with dark malts and an expresso draft.

Really interesting flavours it has some spicy notes almost nutmeg-like with the oak it comes across almost like pine. It reminds me for some reason of treated pine sleepers that have been burnt. Very complex and moreish.

Thinish mouthfeel again surprisingly, it makes it a little more drinkable but not quite fitting of what you would expect, regardless a really great porter!

Pours a pretty damn dark brown, really not getting much light through that. Head is modest, but nice and dense with ochre bubbles. Lace is insanely good when tilted, nice and clingy. Nice froth when you swill the head. Looks fantastic.

Smells quite dark, also sour. Interesting cherry and coconut aromas with a bit of cranberry and raisin. Yeah, very fruity and tart but with nice licorice spice and a hint of booziness. Dark, tart spicy and sweet. That is magnificent. Chocolate and nuts as well? Just beautiful aromas.

Taste is more sour than anything else. Actually I sense it's a bit thin in comparison to the nose. Fairly dark, with mild roasty flavours, hint of espresso on the mid. Lots of tart flavours though, with some cherry notes and red wine, bitter chocolate and cranberries. Could use more roastiness and possibly more sweetness, although the palate is interesting overall. Just has an odd tartness that is nice, but not sure it needs to be so dominant. Could be magnificent with more oomph!

Swills well in the mouth, with a nice thick viscosity to it; leaves very dry though and could have used a bit more sweetness to counteract. Feels slightly over-attenuated.

Yeah, a very decent drop this with nice flavours. Unfortunately it just lacks sparkle in some key areas.

I'm quite impressed with Bridge Road in general - they do some really interesting things. I hope this is one of them.

Pours a very dark, almost opaque black-brown, with only a fine film of light brown. Lacing is excellent. Looks very dark and deep, although it seems to lack some body. Very nice though.

Nose is lovely, it really has those big oaky, slightly vinous notes of the best American oak-aged examples, with some slightly smoke-tinged notes and dark grain. Slight spice, almost a capsicain note to give some fragrance. It's really, really, nice, and wonderfully complex. Lovely.

Taste is a little thin, but has some big bold roasted characters, and a quite noticeable acidity, possibly attributable to the oak. Feel is quite weak, and a little insipid, which is quite a shame, because otherwise there's a lot of pleasant characters to it.

It falls down in the end, but there's certainly some good characters to it. Everything is weighted towards the nose, and there's very little else to hold it up in the end. Nice enough though.

750 ML bottle poured into a tulip Bottle number 543 Served at room temperature

A-- Poured black, just a bit of crimson in the pour, very large mocha colored head that finally settled to on finger in height. Good head retention on a few swirls of the glass. Just a bit of thick, patchy lacing on the sides of the glass.

S-- Get vanilla, coffee, roasted malts, chocolate and a bit of milk sweetness in this. At first thought a vanilla mocha. As it warms it becomes more citrus.

T-- Really strong, almost burnt coffee taste, just a bit of spice with this as well.

M-- Get a lot of tannins in this, the oak I am assuming. It sits pretty heavy on the front of my teeth. A bit of a sour citrus finish. Like the coffee start with the sour citrus finish. Quite different. Medium body and medium feel. The sour citrus does get more sour and become more lemon as it warms.

D-- ABV is pretty well hidden for 8%, though one 750 does the job pretty well. Would buy again and cellar for a long period of time. Over a year and it might mellow out more of the hops as the citrus does dominate the beer in the end.

Note--- Became more sour midway through drinking bottle, believe infected or a bad bottle and drain poured rest. Still would try again in time. As first quarter was pretty decent.

Had this in my collection for a while and finally decided to crack it tonight limited edition number 0492 anyways it pours a deep cola hue with a lucious chocolate laced two finger creamy rising head and some sticky lacing here and there,the aroma is definately very oak driven with only a feint hint of floral fruity hops but the oak is very dominant,it has a nice full mouthfeel with tastes of mocha,obviously oak and also some floral fruity hops on the finish to make this brew more desirable on taste than on the nose,overall i think with aging this brew the oak character only intensified and will do so with further aging its definately an interesting beer but only one for special occasions and microbrew fans.

A - Served in a tulip glass. Pours an opaque dark brown verging on black. 2cm mocha coloured head that falls away fairly quickly.
S - Floral & fruity hop aromas with some fruity esters followed by some roasty chocolate and vauge oak character.
T - Also quite floral in the taste with a noticebale tropical fruit flavour atop a roasty chocolate maltiness with some touches of burnt bitterness and hints of dark fruit caramel sweetness.
M - Medium bodied with a fairly low carbonation. Bit of a bitter finish. The oak aging may have contirbuted some tannins.
D - A nice beer that I'd drink again. To be honest I was hoping for some more oaky character but I really dig the combination of floral and fruity hop flavours with the choclate character.