Nice red copper ale with a pleasant raisin and malt aroma , like a good barley wine. Nice fruity grape taste , caramel, resinous notes and very malty. Nice bitter finish. Nice bodied, very enjoyable on dreary days.

2000-2001 bottle. Deep Ruby with some orange and brown tinges. Smells of strong malt and alcohol. Medium amount of soft off white head that leaves quickly. Begins sweet with some earthy/root liqueur notes. The body has some sweet malty notes, and tastes like a small pancake breakfast with maple syrup and bacon. Hops definitely come out and there lingers a dry hopped flavor towards the end that is not dominant, but adds some balance. Some grainy notes detectable and alcohol may not need to be this high to achieve the flavor. 2003-2004 bottle. Butterscotch/english toffee aroma, medium strong. Goldings hops, caramel. Pretty nice altogether. Clear, however with a small head, but a nice ruby/mahogany color. Holy crap, it certainly wasnt this hoppy last time. Cascades hops, ultra bitterness on the end. Very dry, only moderate sweetness at the beginning. Moderately acidic hops finish, with some very dry butter-toffee. The 01 was more balanced. 2005 bottle Now a year-round production, and in part, I can’t blame them for wanting to cash in on a good product, but IMO, upping the production on this has hurt the already sagging quality of this once glorious beer. Boring, uneventful maltiness, is sweet, lightly sticky but more filtered. Hops are more straightforward bitter and light pine-like, with a short finish overall, and just something really missing. Though I havent kept my scores from the different vintages, my overall is a mix.

[year unknown] Nice amber color, minimal lacing that disappears quickly - slightly fruity aroma - this is a pretty robust and flavorful ale, lots going on - roasted nuts, fruits, cookie, a bit of chocolate - slight hops and grain in the finish - a very well made english strong ale, esp. from an american brewery.

2007-10-06, bottle at Brickseller, Washington DC, 6-3-7-3-14=33
Amber color; beautiful creamy head. A good balanced Ale, with a good body strength, malty, quite good flavor, also milky (but puke comes out too), but it’s not as special as I remembered.

2003-03-02, Winter 1997-1998 Edition, 5 years old, 8-5-9-5-17=44.
Cloudy dark amber color with a persistent layer of foam; nice perlage. Wonderful aroma of malt, some hop, caramel, nuts, some phenols; pretty similar to some barley wine, but less sweet.
Excellent body texture, good balance of malty body and strong bitterness with good hop aromas, caramel, chocolate. Ending with a boldly bitter and aromatic final; a lot of caramel as well.
Maybe it has lost some hop freshness, but it has aged well, showing only a very light Madeira character.
An excellent low alcohol Barley Wine, without the alcohol punch.

2000 Millenium Vintage: Dark amber in colour with a medium off-white head. Nice flavours going, burnt sugars (both from caramel and from ripe fruit), a musty flavour as well. Good complexity and balance between the hops and malt,especially noticable in the aftertaste. A better vintage than the 2003 bottle which I had before. I had this one out of the same bottle with DougShoemaker given to us by Lyle Ostrow at Premier Gourmet in Buffalo, New York. 7,4,7,4,16 2003 Vintage: Amber in colour with no head at all. Sweet and grapey in the smell. Strong--malty--and hoppy in taste. A great flavourful beer! 7,3,7,4,16

Ruby coloured with a nice reamy head. A clean, hop dominated very bitter ale.

Millenium Edition - Orangey dark amber; huge, firm malty nose; caramel, wood, robust earthiness; long and balanced malt; touch of dark chocolate.