Bottle 18th - Piney with some nice malt backbone. The wood is there although in the background, this bottle is 8 months old. Clear amber with a thick off white head. So very smooth and rich on the palate, with the ever so slightest alcohol warmth on the throat. Malts are forefront with the hops and bitterness coming in shortly after. More of a symphony of flavors all playing nicely rather than fighting. The oak really comes through with the malts adding a nice depth. Caramel, toffee a bit of alcohol are all there. Very nice.

Hazy amber colour with a small off white head. Nice mild and complex aroma. Fruity, light hoppy and some wood. Full body with a really great balanced sweetness. Also a nice bitterness. Rich, but not overkill. Some plums in the flavour? Nice balanced sweetness with some wood and hopps in the flavour. Lovely beer! Smooth carbonation and very well hidden alcohol.
[Bottle, 18th Anniversary, from Systembolaget Nordstan in Göteborg, Sweden]

17th Anniversary Bottle on 23 April 2011. Deep ruby tinted coloured body with a copper glow and a thinnish, fast-dying two centimetre head and a ton of sediment floating in the balance. Aroma of pungent wood, oak, vanilla, peat, alcohol and a light earthy and nutty hoppiness with some good malt as well. Full-bodied; Pungent alcohol, pit fruit, oak, vanilla, peat, grass notes with hops and caramel by far the strongest - very nice, and very flavourful. Aftertaste is quite potent and complex with the oaky and woodsy flavours going full force, then some nice sweetness like a barleywine coupled with the hoppiness of an imperial IPA make for a very well done combination. Overall, this is reminiscent of a hopped barley wine to me, but with perhaps some more oaky and earthy flavours than you even find in a Barley Wine. This one was aged quite nicely, and still showed a bunch of complexity and surprisingly a good amount of hops - but without so much bite. I sampled this 65 cL bottle purchased from Whole Foods in New York, New York (Bowery Location) almost a year ago on 25-November-2011 for US$9.99 sampled at home in Washington the day before Thanksgiving on 21-November-2012, and the bottle was roughly a year and a half old.