Bridgeport Stumptown Tart 2011. How a sequel kills a franchise.

Frosty — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 05:10:41 +0000

As I was sipping some fun and different flavors at the recent Portland Fruit Beer Festival, it struck me suddenly that there was a particular entry that seemed to be glaringly absent. You see, Bridgeport recently released this years edition of Stumptown Tart. Yet despite the brewery being only a few miles away, and ST being a fruit beer and all, it seemed a curious omission. And it got me to thinking. I sure haven’t heard much about it in the social media world. None of the local beer bloggers had talked about it. And they didn’t even send me one (I know, right?). All of which led me to the conclusion…the brewery doesn’t like it. I mean, really…almost no marketing push, no inclusion in the local FRUIT beer fest. So I set about to try and find some to test it myself.

And try I had to. Apart from Belmont Station and presumably the brewery itself, I couldn’t find it anywhere. So after a trip to the previously mentioned Belmont, I returned home and did the most regretable thing I could have. I tasted it.

Ugh. I didn’t want to be right about my suspicions, but I played a perfect Sherlock on this one. In what has been a steady decline in greatness since then first Stumptown Tart, this year’s (and I’ll bet final) rendition is just not good. Not at all. Not even a little. It’s just ….blech. Barely fruity, barely decent ale flavor. For the first time in four years, I poured a Stumptown Tart down the sink. You can blame the strawberry inclusion if you want (there are almost no decent strawberry beers), but I think it’s just a case of it being time to put the idea out to pasture. ST One was amazing. But like so many ham fisted attempts at cashing in on sequels (cough…Matrix…cough…Star Wars), this beer was phoned in, and it’ll take many more bottles of something good before the travesty is wiped from my memory.

Frosty Goodness » Bridgeport Brewing

Bridgeport Stumptown Tart 2011. How a sequel kills a franchise.