Not sure what insprired me to grab this, barleywines arent my fling unless they're smashed with other flavors, this ones very barley forward and malty, boozy and strong. Not thick.

Mikkeller NYC bottle: pours amber with small head. Aroma is malty, lightly piny, hoppy, sigary. Taste is lightly sweet. Some bitterness. Moderate complexity. Hard to drink sort of. Seems to be in keeping with style, which I admit I do not love. BiL.

From Feb 2008

I got this in a trade with rustydiamond. Thanks Rusty!

It pours from foiled, caged and corked 12.7oz bottle(cork say 14/08/11) a clear deep amber with a 1 finger head of foam. Lots of lacing here and the head retention is better than average for the style.

The smell is malty foremost followed by some fruit and some slight bitterness.

The taste is huge. Lots of caramel malt starts things off but from there, I get an infusion of hops, mostly citrus, and a big kick of alcohol. Wheww...this is a mighty powerful brew and all of the 12%abv seems to be right there, in your face...err...mouth. Lots of warming to be had here so I'm only going to take *very* small sips.

A few sips later and the malt seems to have taken a sweeter route and taking on a more English style BW personna and that's a good thing in my book but the alcohol is kind of ruining it for me. And just when I say that, the bitterness from the hops kicks it up a notch again...weird how the flavours seem to change for me from sip to sip.

It's going to be tough for me to rate this beer but one thing I know for sure, in its curent state, it's certainly not all that drinkable for me but I *am* glad I got to try it.

375 ml bottle. Pours a hazy mahogany color with moderate head that settles quickly. Aromas of sulphury dried dark fruit/raisins, tobacco, caramel, and toasted malts. Flavors of candi sugar, grass, alcohol, raisins, and more toasted malts. Od mix. Expecting more...

Intensywne, suszone owoce, karmel, zywice, ziolowosc, morele, kandyzowane jakies sprawy. W smaku podobnie ale mniej slodko. Tylko jedna[...]

Sampled from 0.375 l bottle. Clear, dark amber with a white layer. Sweetish, malty, slightly oxidized and a bit boozy aroma of molasses, caramel, raisins and vanilla. Sweetish, quite malty and slightly oxidized taste of caramel, molasses, some coffee, a touch of raisins and some vanilla, followed by a long, slightly bitter, rather warming-alcoholic finish. Medium to full body, slightly oily mouthfeel, soft carbonation. Okay, but very disappointing.

(375ml bottle sample @ VilleValla Pub, Linköping, Sep 1 2016) Pours fairly clear pale reddish-brown with a huge pile of off white head. Aroma of burnt sugar, toasted grains, nuts, sweet darker malts, touches of dark fruit and citrus, bittering hops. Flavour is reasonably sweet but counteracted by rather hefty bitterness, toasted grains and toffee, candied orange, a bit of dark fruit, slight breadiness to the malt, nuttiness. Finish is rather dry and bitter with more toasted grain, some bittering hops, slight citrus peel, a bit of alcohol heat. Medium bodied, low carbonation. Quite decent barley wine, nothing really stuck out for me though.