Gold Medal – Smuttynose Really Old Brown Dog
Silver Medal – North Coast Old Stock
Bronze Medal – Hair of the Dog Adam
Other Participants – Founder Curmudgeon, Bells Third Coast Old Ale
Board of Director Vote
1. Smuttynose
2. Hair of the Dog Adam
3. Third Coast Old Ale
4. Founders Curmudgeon
5. North Coast Old Stock
Personal Reaction
People often wonder about the subtle differences between some of the high ABV categories such as Old Ales and Barleywines and they were definitely on display in this tasting. The two Michigan breweries made Old Ales that very much reminded me of barleywines. This would easily explain why these two beers scored at the bottom with the larger group. As far as barleywines go, I have always loved Third Coast, which has a nice bit of sweetness up front to break up the heaviness of the beer. The Curmudgeon was a run of the mill barleywine, which was unremarkable from front to back. The Old Stock had a dark malt added, which broke up the flavor profile a bit. It was probably the most mellow of the bunch, which would likely explain the high score with the large group and poor score with the Board of Directors. The last two beers, Smuttynose and Adam, also had a nice rich addition of some dark malt, which presented itself as dark and almost smokey. To me, these two beers epitomized the style and now defines what I really love in an Old Ale. For me personally, the Adam had more depth of flavors that came together in perfect hamony. The Smuttynose was right there, but didn’t quite achieve the same layers of flavor.