I’ve got three tastings to report on this week — two new beers and one comparing two bottlings of the same beer.

The biggest new beer, both in flavor and likelihood to sell, is the Double Old Thumper from Shipyard. This beer was released last week, initially only at the Shipyard brewery gift store in Portland but by now at most good beer specialty stores and probably a few supermarkets.

Double Old Thumper is going to be a year-round offering, sold only in 22-ounce bottles and on draft. All four tasters liked the new offering quite a bit, but only one liked it better than the original Old Thumper that we tasted as a comparison. The original Old Thumper, by the way, is my favorite Shipyard beer, although it was created by Peter Austin at the Ringwood Brewery in England, where Shipyard Brewer Alan Pugsley trained. It’s brewed in the United States by Shipyard.

The Double Thumper, created by Pugsley, comes in at 11.2 percent alcohol (exactly double the original), has double the hops, and probably could be classified as a barley wine, although Shipyard’s publicity avoids that term. Instead, it is called the original’s big brother, and the original is an English bitter and Extra Special Ale.

The Double poured crystal clear, just a little bit deeper in color than the original. It had a stronger aroma of both hops and malt than the original, although they both had the same body.

Pugsley said the original Old Thumper, at 5.6 percent alcohol, was considered a big beer when it first came out, but is now considered average. But the Double Old Thumper is definitely a big beer.

I see only two problems with the Double Old Thumper: one with marketing, the other with easy drinking power.

I think fans of Old Thumper might expect the Double Thumper to be more similar to the original than it is and come away disappointed. The other problem is that, despite the high alcohol content, the Double went down really quickly and easily. If I were to drink that all night, I could get into some trouble.

 

WHILE AT RSVP on Forest Avenue in Portland last week, I spotted a 22-ounce bottle of Rising Tide Ursa Minor weizen stout coming in at 6.7 percent alcohol.

I can’t recall having a wheat stout before, but it tasted how I would expect. It had the richness of flavor for a typical dry stout, but not the body I would expect from most stouts. The wheat probably makes for the lighter body. The aroma was nicely malty, with a good balance of hops and a nice lingering flavor.

The is the second beer from the new brewery following Ishmael, an American copper ale released Oct. 1. Both have been very good.

 

WHEN GRITTY MCDUFF’S brewer Ed Stebbins spoke at the Meet Your Brewer dinner the night before the Maine Brewers Festival, he said Gritty’s beers in 22-ounce bottles are different from the beers in 12-ounce bottles.

The 22-ounce bottles are brewed at Gritty’s Freeport brewery and, because they are going to be sold locally, are unfiltered.

The 12-ounce bottles are brewed at the Shipyard brewery in Portland, and because they can be shipped farther and need the ability to be stored longer, are filtered.

So I bought a six-pack of Scottish Ale and compared it with a 22-ounce bottle of Scottish Ale that I also found at RSVP.

Gritty’s brings out its Scottish Ale every January, and at 6.3 percent alcohol, it is one of the company’s stronger beers. It has a rich flavor, and is a bit darker than it is bitter.

The 22-ounce bottle was slightly cloudier than the 12-ounce bottle, but the only way you could tell would be to taste them side-by-side.

The hop bite was the same in both beers, and both had the same sweetness and maltiness. But the 22-ounce version had a bit more yeastiness and other nuances that played around the tongue.

I would gladly drink either of them at any time, but if I had a choice, I’d go with the larger bottle — and not just because it is larger.

Stebbins also likes the unfiltered version better. “The way I see it,” he said, “is that if God had meant us to drink filtered beer, he wouldn’t have given us kidneys.”

He said most of the 22-ounce bottles are sold at Gritty’s own stores and will be drunk within a couple of months, which he says is the shelf life of unfiltered beer.

 

Tom Atwell can be contacted at 791-6362 or at

tatwell@pressherald.com

 

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