Hop Harvest Ale (2008-2009)
BridgePort Brewing Co. / Brewpub

Cleaning desk and found notebook of beer notes from 2011. Notes reflected that this beer was a bit dull, not bright in nose, mouth feel or flavor profile. However, also reflects that beer is pretty drinkable although not remarkable. Good basic flavor and drinkability.

 

 

Nice orange appearance with a slightly yellow appearance too, quite light for an IIPA, to be honest, quite light and many better examples of a DIPA

Smelled like old socks, not even a good hope smell

Immediate wash of bitter hops, but the aftertaste is qiute confused

Feellls good in the mouth

Can't say I'd have more than this one

Got as an extra in a trade from wavers1. Props to him!

A - Pours a hazy dark brown color with a long lasting a sticky finger of head.

S - It's all about the hops in this one, steely hop bite in the nose.

T - Steely hop bit at first, hints of floral hops that fades as it goes down the mouth. Not nearly as strong of a flavor as I like from double IPAs.

M/D - Mouthfeel is full and bold, it's a reasonably drinkable beer I would reach for when I was casually drinking something hoppy.

I was pleasantly surprised by this beer. Not being a big fan of IPA's from Oregon, this one changed my mind. Pours a nice amber color with nice head and quite a bit of lacing. Very balanced smell...not too much hops up front, but definitely present. The taste was very balanced as well...a nice citrusy hop flavor followed by that toasty malt flavor that I just love. A very easy drinking IIPA that I wouldn't mind trying again sometime.

Poured In: Snifter Glass
Attained through a trade.

Appearance: The non-careful pour produces half a finger of head that quickly disappears. The beer is a nice dark amber color; the caramel malt should be shining through from the looks of it. I just can't get any lace to show up. I was expecting some nice sheets, but the snifter is perfectly clear. The beer is just slightly effervescent. It looks like the carbonation should be nice and soft on the tongue.

Smell: The nose is... well, a bit strange. There is either an enormous amount of herbal hops or there is a weird hop variety in there. The nose smells like freshly cut grass, a little alcohol, and some sweet caramel malt. The nose is entirely herbal, alcohol, and malt. There's no citrus in there. Not having citrus in the nose is fine, although the intensity of the freshly cut grass aroma is something that I haven't experienced before.

Taste: The palate is also interesting. The malt profile is nearly nowhere to be found. During the first few seconds of the tasting I really don't pick up very much flavor. It's as if they cut out the malt flavor temporarily. After a few seconds, some herbal hops come into play to finish the tasting. More notes of freshly cut grass, but some pine comes into play as well. The aftertaste leaves a little bit of citrus in my mouth, but it's still very herbal. The citrus flavor is grapefruit.

Mouthfeel: The beer has a nice mouthfeel. It's a medium bodied beer, with a nice gentle carbonation that I love. It makes it easy to sip on right from the start.

Drinkability: A weekend beer for sure. I don't think I could handle twenty two ounces of this on a weeknight. This was an interesting beer. The herbal hop profile in the nose and on the palate was more intense than any other beer I've had before. I will admit, I am partial to the nice citrus flavor, but the herbal profile was a nice change. I think if the freshly cut grass could have been cut down in the nose and replaced with a little citrus it would have been a very nice change to the beer that would score it a handful of more points.

Transcribed from notes taken while at the brewpub in Portland, Oregon. Fragile head, orange hue with grassy hop aroma with hints of gunpowder green tea. Easy malty mid-palate with some residual candied sweetness. Very easy drinking and pretty pedestrian.

Pours a nice hazy orange with a thin head and some lacing.
Smell is fresh grass, grapefruit and a little pine.
Fresh tasting with very bright hopiness thin malt backbone, very similar to Sierra Nevada Wet hop beers.
Easy to quaff, I wish it was a hot day, This is very thirst quenching and refreshing.
Cheers!

First try of this style...

A: A cloudy deep orange gold with a nice frothy head that leaves little lacing as it goes down.

N: Whiffs of peaches, oranges and lemons, resiny pine trees and fresh grass.The pineyness is really strong and isolated. I can't decide if it reminds me of household cleaning products. I guess not.

T: There really is a freshness to it that is new to us. You can taste some of the fruitiness and mild maltiness. It's very bright and easy to throw back. The freshness mixes well with the scents of falling leaves making it an interesting beverage for a crisp autumn day. However, compared to some of the NW IPAs out there, it's perhaps a little simple tasting.

M: A little light in the mouth...

It will be interesting to compare this to other fresh hop beers in the future.

This brew is all hops, from the smell to taste to mouthfeel, this is your typical big hoppy west coast beer.
Poured a deep amber, with a thick head. Smell was somewhat malty, but over-powered by hops. Taste is big hops at the front, big hoppy dry finish to close out.
This is a very solid drinkable beer for the hop dominance, I highly recommend this.

Clear copper amber with a big smooth offwhite foamy head. Droopy mountainous laces.

Pine, grassy, herbal. Apple and medicinal cherries. Toasty bread and caramel. Not as hoppy as i expected this hop harvest to be.

Fresh earthy grassy/piney hops. Mild toasty caramel and spiced bread. Mild herbal/pine bitterness. nice freshness and a hop stickiness that builds.

med body, dry smooth and sticky, refreshing

Great freshness and a very drinkable and refreshing brew. Not quite as hoppy as i expected, but a good all around brew.

2009 Harvest.

A: Hazy copper, off-white head has a little retention & leaves a good lace.

S: Grapefruit rind, floral, vaguely catty, toffee & biscuit.

T: Grapefruit rind, a little piny resin, toffee, balanced bitterness, alcohol remarkably well-hidden.

M: Moderate body is smooth with a dry finish.

D: A really easy drinker for its weight.

I love their sessionable IPA... but I expected a little more oomph from this one.

Ap - Very nice yet typical amber hue
Ar - muted hop, straw, and citrus aromas
T - the hops are oppressive on this Dbl IPA (see below)
M - Astringent, the tannins need to be checked
D - a little bit over the top and unbalanced

Verdict:

I love these vintage hop harvest double IPAs, but perhaps I am unfairly comparing this to Chatoe Rogue (correct spelling) and the Deschutes Hop Trip. Where those two balance the hoppiness with rich texture and fuller flavors, this brew seems all about hops and not much else. If you like Barleywine and other super hop brews, try it. If you like IPAs and Double IPAs, stick with Rogue, Deschutes, and Hopworks.

I ran across this one at my local Whole Foods and had to give it a try.

Pours a beautiful shade of apricot orange-yellow, and by appearance alone looks like a few IPAs I've tried. Head is a dollop of soft white foam, which persists briefly prior to dissipating into a soft raft of bubbles on a thin layer of white froth.

Aroma is nicely hoppy, mainly smelling of piney resins with a slight citrus-like quality. Taste is very crisp and full of hoppy goodness, with quite a bit less bitterness than I was initially expecting. Very smooth and relatively full-bodied for a pale ale. Aftertaste is a nice meld of hops and a bit of malty sweetness to round things out. To me, this tastes a bit like some good British IPAs I've tried in recent months.

My only regret with this brew is that it was released in the autumn. I think it would be good just about any time of year, but I would have loved to pop one of these open after sharing an outdoor meal with friends. If hops were no object, I wouldn't complain if the good folks at Bridgeport worked this one into the rotation year-round. I might just have to pick up a bottle to share with the family at Thanksgiving this year...

Dark orange coloured ale, slighly hazy,with a gorgeous thick,creamy off white head. Nice grassy/lemony hop aromas.Slighly flowery. Nice solid refeshing lemon-grass hop flavours,stay right to the end and beyond.Some malts. Pretty nice on the palate, quite good. Drinkable beer..but i can help thinking this would have been far better in its first month.
2009 version with 7% alc.

Nice to see fresh hop beers hitting the shelves again.

Pours a clear orangey amber color with a barely off white head that retains pretty well and leaves ok lacing.

Nose is mostly PNW IPA flowery hops with some slight dank sweetness (likely the wet ones) in the background.

Hmmm. A nice beer. Not quite as hop centric as i want it too be, but a very well balanced beer. A nice floral hop profile with a subtle fresh hop resiny sweetness. The malt backbone is right where it should be. There is a slight almost apple like twinge in the aftertaste and the bitterness slowly rises peaking at this point as well.

Mouthfeel is a slight bit heavy for the size, but really not too bad. Carbonation is right where it oughta be, and i like the balanced finish.

Drinkability is where this one shines. Very well balanced and a brew that you could easily kill a couple bombers of.

Overall a decent beer. Extremely balanced and quite drinkable. I would like a little more deep resinous hop flavor, but its alright as it is. A drinkable yet flavorful beer, just nothing terribly exciting. Good brew.

Sampled from a 22oz bottle in a hotel glass. Purchased at Whole Foods on Westlake in Seattle. No date on the bottle but being close to the hop harvest, it must be fresh.

A deep golden color with a haze and a thick off-white head. A grassy aroma with a touch of lemon. The flavor follows the aroma closely with a strong grassy taste. Much of the flavor comes from a mild bitterness that emerges midway through and lingers nicely. It has some toasted malt and yeast in there as well. It's a bit on the dry side. It's got a moderate consistency and a low carbonation. It falls a little short on mouthfeel. The glass is left with nice rings of lacing.

This is a decent beer and I'm glad I tried it but I'm not sure I'd buy it again.

This is the '09 version fyi.

Appearance: Pretty red for an IIPA. Plenty of head that laces poorly.

Smell: Full bodied smell. We got hops, we got yeast, we got malt.
I think i detect some apple notes in here as well.

Taste: This is just a big balanced ale. Nothing special going on here but nothing is going wrong either.

Mouthfeel: Not much alcohol and a perfect amount of carbonation. It doesn't finish too dry and leaves your mouth feeling good.

Drinkability: To big to drink too much of and I want a more distinct flavor in my beers.

Received this brew as an extra from Gclarkage in a recent trade. Bridgeport IPA was the beer that turned me onto craft brews so I'm excited to try this. Hopefully the hops have held up over the past couple months. Drank from my Stone India Pale Ale flute.

Appearance- Pours a hearty copper orange with a huge billowing two finger off-white creamy head. A great cap and collar remain leaving loads of thick chunky lacing.
Smell- Still has a nice hop bite to it that is very earthy with tons of pine and grass. A small bit of grapefruit and something spearmint like show as well. Not much in the way of malt to get in the hops way but there is a light bit of sweet honey malt hiding in the background.
Taste- Starts with a nice hop bite that lightly bitter and full of citrus pith. The hops are still nice but you can tell they've lost some of that freshness as the bitterness is a little more harsh than when these are fresh. A light bit of toffee hangs around adding just a tinge of sweetness. A bit of grapefruit and pine linger for quite some time.
Mouthfeel- Medium to light body with a nice oily (almost creamy) feel with very light carbonation.
Drinkability- I'd say this has held up pretty nice for the most part. It does lose that real fresh zing that these fresh hop brews have but it's still very nice. I'll definitely have to keep my eye out for this come next year. Thanks Chris!