Clear amber colour, off-white head. Some barn-yard and earthy aromas. Flavours of medicine, yeast and caramel malts. Heavy beer, but alcohol well hidden. Very special. Update: flavour of sour fruits. -0.4

+++ RE-RATE 19-FEB-2009 +++
12 oz bottle from MaltOMeal. 2007 Vintage. Pour is a slightly hazed orange brown copper with settling that builds up a nice one inch off white head. Head is lasting. Nice streaky lacing as the beer drinks down. Aroma of cooking brown sugar, and sweet molasses maltiness. Some citrus fruit sweetness and pine toward the back. Floral notes. Nice nose. Taste is the brown sugar sweetness initially, moving onto a orange peel citrus and pine needle bitterness. Nice balance and interplay between these two flavors. Aftertaste lingers nicely with molasses and pine. Alcohol is slightly present, but does not detract. Palate is sticky and slick medium bodied, mouth coating and full. Nice sipper. Thanks for sending this my way Bill, it was a MUCH better beer this time around. Rating updated (8,4,7,4,15 - 3.8)

+++ ORIGINAL RATING 15-FEB-2008 +++
2007 Vintage. 12 oz. Bottle courtesy of Zinister. Pour is a slightly hazy orange amber with a two inch off white head. Aroma of sweet caramel malt and some fruit sourness. Taste is grainy, malty and actually quite grassy with a bunch of phenols. Tasted a lot of Band Aids. The finish tastes a bit of ear wax, heat and more of the gritty dirty grassiness. I am hoping there was a problem with this bottle, because I didn’t pick up on any of the sweetness mentioned by others, and this wasn’t very good. (6,4,3,2,8 - 2.3)

2007 Vintage. Aroma is moderate yeast with piney hops and something that smells like rotting oranges. Appearance is a cloudy amber. Extremely sweet throughout. Duration is long and bitter finish. The reported alcohol is well hidden (abv listed on bottle). Syrupy mouthfeel. Quite nice.

I remember the 2005 bottle (consumed in fall of 2006 was better. This rating is for the 2007 12oz bottle, which was shared by notalush. Pours a copper color with medium clarity and no head, just a small lacing. Aroma is strong with too much spiky fruitiness and some light raisin. Taste is not heavy, pretty boozy, just slightly sticky mouthfeel. Kind of a nowhere beer right now.

Re-rate. 2012 bottle , just about 1 year old. Bottle was a gift from our friends Lora and Bill, thanks a lot bestjas in all of Tejas. Bottled on 3-24-12, just a few weeks short of its one year anniversary.
I definitely like this label more and I can say the beer is much better than the ’07 vintage. Purs a glowing yet murky orange, thick beer, small head but long lasting. I get some of that astringent barleywine but there are nice fruity esters and a strong fruity hop presence. Nice beer that I would drink again and I am changing my rating, last one probably doesn’t represent the beer. 7/3/7/3/15

On tap at Flying Saucer. Pours a cloudy amber color with a medium light tan head. The aroma is a strong grapefruit and light hops. Good lacing on the glass. The taste is a very smooth sweet malt and very easy to drink for such a high alcohol percentage. An excellent barley wine from Real Ale.

2007 bottle from lb4lb - so for a while I was drinking this, and thinking that it wasn’t entirely awful, and then Larry (goldtwins) had to go and say that it tasted like orange juice, and it all went down hill from there - it really is tangy and citrusy, like OJ, or even Tang - remember Tang? - it’s what the astronauts drink - anyway - the aroma was kind of doughy, with notes of fig and cherry - quite doughy in flavor, yet thin-bodied at the same time - some dried cherries and oranges (Tang!) - odd - drinkable, but not that good.

12 oz 2007 bottle from Kaggie97; Nose of plums, sweet brown sugar, and a hint of vanilla; Red-orange with a small beige head; Flavor has raisiny fruit, hop bitterness, and light sweetness; finish is lightly bitter. 3.3 12/10/2007 2016 bottle. Nose is toffee, vanilla, and raisins. Rusty orange with a small beige head. Flavor is lightly bitter with some sweetness and dark friut.

Vertical tasting between 2002 purple and 2003 indigo label 2002 Very smal rim over hazy orange-amber beer. 2003 Small to medium yellow head over brighter orange-amber beer with slight haze. 2002 Rich hopcake nose, fresh US hops, tad of liquorice and sugar syrup 2003 Drier nose, more cake, less hops and certainly less molasses too. A bit of alcohol. 2002 Near harsh bitterish hops taste, hops in a thick cake, marmalade but from something else than oranges. Ends retronasal on a taste that my wife calls smoked, and is more like incense to me. Warming up it gets a moccha character. 2003 Even richer taste, more concentrated cake, vinous, ends harsh too, near metallic, and a retronasal flavour of incense again. 2002 Thick, viscous-slick, pappy. 2003 Generally the same, but even thicker. Maybe alcohol more prominent. Both very good beers, definitely the same idea, and I’d be hard pressed to say which one I prefer. Marks are an average from both bottles. Thanks for both, Dewberries!