Busted Knuckle Ale
Quaff ON! Brewing Co.

At Proof 124 in Lawrenceburg

 

 

Served in a pint glass at the brewery’s sister Hard Truth restaurant.

Look: Dark brown with a 1/2” tan head that receded to a foam cap with adequate lacing.

Nose: Dark roast, chocolate, and cooked brown sugar.

Attack: Follows the nose, plus coffee.

Finish: Bitterness from the roast to balance.

Mouthfeel: Medium, sufficient carbonation.

Overall: A sound robust porter, full-flavored, tasty, and drinkable.

Nice grab on my country jog to Richmond, IN. Had a few errands and hit up the local liquor mart. You gotta grab the Indiana beers when in Indiana. Very balanced, initial sweet but some lingering dryness from the hops and perhaps roasted malts. At 7.2 abv it drinks like a lower abv but with more richness. Great beer. One of the best porters to date. Cheers!

12oz bottle. No dating information found.
Dark brown colored body. Tan colored head, which recedes to islands and a thin ring. No lacing.
Aroma of roasted malts, with caramel, molasses, and a scent close to black licorice.
Taste is kind of sweet from roasted malts, with flavors of molasses. caramel, and a touch of black licorice. Close to a sweet vanilla adds in late.
Medium mouthfeel with a dry finish. Tugs tight in the mouth. Okay carbonation.
Modulated sweetness leads to a dry chocolate expression. Mellow and smooth.

Busted Knuckle Porter
Served cold shaker pint at Nashville location. Dark brown with light brown head. Minimal aroma with a little cocoa. The taste is bittersweet roasted malt with mild cocoa. Mild bitterness. Mouthfeel is thin bodied with average carbonation and a mostly dry finish. Overall, ok.

 

12 oz bottles into first a tulip glass then the second into a Becher glass.
L: Pours black with a touch of mahogany at the glass base, a fizzy light tan head that recedes quickly to thin edge foam, good fine steady carbo bubbles, no lacing.
S: A hint of chocolate, light char, raisins, a distant note of brown bread, background dark fruits.
T: Semi-sweet dark roasted caramelized malts, subtle dark fruits, a touch of red grape, background dark bread, very subtle char, a gently bitter linger. It's a bit sweet on the sides of the tongue and has a moderate linger. All flavors are delicate.
F: Frisky cola-like medium-light bodied feel with a clean center and a medium-long fairly drying finish.
O: It is a "light & robust" easy drinking Porter that is simple and is well balanced. Drinks a bit like root beer. Mild and succulent, it is very good in its style.

 

This is the best beer that Big Woods brews. It is popular throughout Indiana and a pretty good porter.

 

12 oz bottle, poured into a DFH shaped pint glass

Pours dark brown, nearly black, nearly opaque, with just a few mahogany highlights. About a fingers worth of tan head, and leaves no lacing.

Initial aroma is rich and chocolatey, with hints of coffee, vanilla, and roasted malts.

More chocolate than anything, with some molasses, raisin, toasted bread, and just a bit of coffee. Nice and full bodied, moderately carbonated and smooth.

I first tried this beer several years ago, and it is one of the few beers that I always look for when I am traveling to Indiana.

 

bottle into glass
IBU: 27
Very dark brown, with no light transmission and a bit of caramel color highlights, at bottom at edge of glass. Subtle, molasses and caramel, in a semi-sweet way, with a bit of a dark malt aroma. Taste starts off with a blackstrap molasses, some dark roasted grain, in an off-dry manner, with a little brightness, initially, that quickly yields to the richer flavors. Finishes with a bit of dark malt and mainly, dark roasted grain, in an off-dry and subtle fashion.

 

 

 

Poured from the 12 oz. bottle into an imperial pint.

A: The beer is a dark brown with cola-like reddish brown tints coming in at the sides. Head was two fingers, fizzy tan with a minute or so of retention, leaving a residue at the top of the beer.

S: Sweetness, vanilla, caramel, toasted malt, brown sugar.

T: Cola, roasted malt, brown sugar/molasses. Finishes with a slightly metallic or watery note that kind of negates part of the taste.

F: Light and carbonated

Overall, this is a good porter. It has a great aroma and checks a lot of boxes. However, it left me wanting a little more when it came to feel and was missing a certain "fullness" that I like in porters. I can see what they mean by "light." A solid brew, and I'll try more from this brewery, but might skip this one in the future.