Old Knucker
Arundel Brewery Limited

Coming in a 500ml brown bottle, BB June 2011, served cool in a straight imperial pint glass.

A: pours a deeply dark brown colour, coming with a well-lasting layer of creamy light beige froth and very light carbonation.
S: deeply malty, sour-fruity and lightly buttery-estery – the gristy dark malts are the main theme on the nose with plenty of sweet coffee-ish, smoky & crushed-calcium-pill-like notes, coupled with overripe dark stone-fruits & berry-fruits, an edge of black sugar, and some stale, sour characters as of wood-barrel ageing.
T: smooth swallow of maltiness, with black cherries, sweet black prunes, licorice, and an increasingly dry palate in the aftertaste; bitter coffee-ish aroma and sour dark fruits sit comfortably with the staleness typical for an Old Ale, while the slightly chewy and spicy palate in the end seems to prolong the enjoyment by a good margin, reminiscent of hops’ work.
M&D: the carbonation is generally smooth vis-à-vis a moderate body, this bottled version doesn’t rekindle my memory of the cask-conditioned one, but I’d say the complexity and structure of flavour are demonstrated vividly in my glass. Well worth a try for anyone interested in this “old style”, I think.