London Balling
Against the Grain Brewery in Louisville, Kentucky, United States 🇺🇸
Barley Wine - Barley Regular Out of Production|
Score
7.45
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English style barleywine aged in Angel’s Envy bourbon barrels. Brewed with enough Maris Otter pale, Aromatic and caramel malts to nearly overflow our mash tun. We then balanced this beer with some English Nugget and Kent Goldings hops. The resulting ale was sweet, nutty and powerful, but we didn’t stop there. The entire batch was put into used Angel’s Envy barrels for nearly 3 months to gather the residual bourbon flavor and some aromatic and drying oak notes. By the way, Balling is a measurement of specific gravity.
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7/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 7
Bottle. An unclear, brown beer topped by a small, dense, beige head. The aroma is toffee-ish, with dried fruits, pine cones, peach notes and alcohol. It’s full-bodied, warming and pleasantly carbonated, with lots of flavor. Dried fruits, pine cones, toffee and alcohol. Some booze and a faint woody touch. Tannins in the finish, with dried fruits, toffee and roasted notes. Quite decent this one, but too boozy for me. 150814
Tried
from Bottle
on 14 Aug 2015
at 11:23
8.1/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 8.5
12 oz. bottle, pours a dark burgundy with a small beige head. Aroma brings out lush, complex bourbon barrels, a nice nuttiness and toffee. Flavour matches, with loads of complex bourbon, toffee, toasted nuts and bready malt. Wonderfully cohesive and rich. This is everything one could hope for in a bourbon barrel aged barley wine. Excellent.
Tried
from Bottle
on 05 Jul 2015
at 01:48
8.5/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 9
Texture 8
Overall 9
12 ounce bottle into snifter, no bottle dating. Pours hazy deep ruby red/brown color with a 1-2 finger fairly dense khaki head with good retention, that reduces to a small cap that lingers. Nice spotty soapy lacing clings around the glass, with a moderate amount of streaming carbonation retaining the cap. Aromas of big raisin, plum, cherry, date, apple, caramel, vanilla, toffee, toast, brown sugar, bourbon, oak, light coconut, herbal, and yeast/oaky earthiness. Damn nice aromas with great complexity and balance of fruity/earthy yeast, dark/bready malt, bourbon barrel, and earthy hop notes; with good strength. Taste of big raisin, plum, cherry, date, apple, caramel, vanilla, toffee, toast, brown sugar, bourbon, oak, light coconut, herbal, and yeast/oaky earthiness. Fair amount of herbal hop bitterness and bourbon/oak spiciness on the finish; with lingering notes of raisin, plum, cherry, date, apple, caramel, vanilla, toffee, toast, brown sugar, bourbon, oak, light coconut, and yeast/oaky earthiness on the finish for a while. Incredible complexity, robustness, and balance of fruity/earthy yeast, dark/bready malt, bourbon barrel, and earthy hop flavors; with a great bitterness/sweetness balance and zero cloying flavors after the finish. Light-medium carbonation and fairly full bodied; with a very smooth, creamy, and lightly slick mouthfeel that is great. Alcohol is well hidden with only a small warmth lingering after the finish. Overall this is an incredible English barleywine. All around awesome complexity, robustness, and balance of fruity/earthy yeast, dark/bready malt, bourbon barrel, and earthy hop flavors; and very smooth to sip on for the big ABV. A highly enjoyable offering.
Tried
from Bottle
on 13 Jun 2015
at 21:41
7.8/10
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Appearance 10
Aroma 8
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 7
Weird little 33cl stubby bottle pours a murky deep brown with loads of frothy, off white head. Nose is interesting, quite resinous, pine, some myrhh, some dried apple, some brandy, lots of caramel, some woody notes, orange, some potpourri. Flavor has more of the conventional bourbon barrel character, caramel, green vanilla bean, heavy orange, more resin character, some tobacco, lots of wood. Full bodied, lightly hot and a little astringent.
Tried
from Bottle
on 13 Jun 2015
at 21:30
8.2/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 9
Bottle shared by Marcus. Pours hazy brown with a very slight head. Aroma of bourbon, brown sugar and oak. Nice aroma. Med +nbody. Flavor is bourbon, brown sugar, and lots of oak. Tongue tingling. Smoke in the finish. Very nice take on barley wine.
Tried
from Bottle
on 01 Jun 2015
at 15:08
7.8/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 8
Small yellowish cream head, fast gone over clear foxy garnet beer. Alcoholic, fusels, vanilla/Bourbon nose. Lòts of vanilla! Eggnog. Bitterish-wood-liquorice, the vanilla coming up retronasal. Something vaguely benzene-aromatic. More fusels. Alcoholwarming, quite slcik-viscous, and well bodied, velvety feel. Good Barley wine, great nose, but I’ve had better in this segment.
Tried
on 01 Jun 2015
at 10:00
8/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 9
Leicht trübe orangebraune Farbe, geringe beige Schaumkrone. Geruch sehr holzig, intensiv malzig, Vanille, Bourbon, Dörrbost, alkoholisch. Geschmack sehr stark nach Karamell, Bourbon, holzig, viel Vanille, reife Früchte, alkoholisch, sehr intensives und interssante Bier, toll!
Tried
on 22 Feb 2015
at 13:07