Old Ruffian
Great Divide Brewing Company in Denver, Colorado, United States 🇺🇸
Barley Wine - Barley Regular Out of Production|
Score
7.63
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Old Ruffian is a hefty, hop-forward Barley Wine. Seemingly mellow at first sniff, with its subtle fruit aromas and complex caramel sweetness, this deep mahogany-hued ale quickly shows its true character marked by bold hop flavors and massive hop bitterness. Old Ruffian's rich, slightly creamy, caramel malt mouthfeel balances its grapefruit, pine, and floral hop flavors, working wonders on your palate.
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8.2/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 9
Tap at Swift. Loved this one. By my tastes this was more like a double IPA than a barleywine but it was great either way. Poured a lovely, dark red with a staunch, beige head. Nose of powerful, piney hops and just hints of sweet malts. Flavor too was dominated by the hops. Some sweet, fruity notes made cameos, but the hops starred in this production. Lip-smacking and resiny, this was a great sipping beer. Would like to try it again to try and detect some of the other ingredients.
Tried
from Draft
on 08 Feb 2010
at 12:26
7.6/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 7.5
22 ounce bottle from Wine Warehouse in Charlottesville, VA. Pours a slightly hazy red color with a very large tan frothy head. Good head retention and lacing. Aroma of caramel, toffee, slight toastiness, earthy and citrus hops, other fruity notes. Taste is bitter hoppy notes with lots of toffee as well as some caramel and citrus notes. Medium-full bodied. Decent barleywine, very drinkable.
Tried
from Bottle
on 21 Jan 2010
at 21:53
8.4/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 9
Texture 8
Overall 8.5
Bomber. Pours a hazy chestnut with a little bit of a sudsy head and aromas of toffee, dark fruit, a bit of resiny hops and a little bit of an earthiness. The main surprise is the strong hops presence in the flavor... lots of pine and biting citrus with a very solid toffee and brown sugar backbone, pretty decent fruit presence and a lovely alcoholic warmth. This is sticky and fairly heavy on the palate. Finish is kind of boozy... with plenty of warmth for January.
Tried
on 18 Jan 2010
at 18:16
9.1/10
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Appearance 10
Aroma 8
Flavor 9
Texture 10
Overall 9.5
Caramel and honeycomb nose with yeasty orange notes. Hazy ochre, ridiculously thick orange head, good lacing. Very rich and full bodied flavor of triple sec, caramel, and maple syrup. Pinier notes appear upon warming. Fig, marigold, and thistle finish. Powerfully flavorful, but not just from the hops. Wonderful balance and texture. Fantastically well done, and proved to be a nice compliment to pate.
Tried
on 01 Jan 2010
at 22:28
7/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 7
Bottle. Poured a caramel brown with red hue and an off white head. Aroma of brown sugar, nougat and malt. Flavor is sweet full of malty notes with an undertone of nougat. Nice and thick on the tongue and goes down smooth.
Tried
from Bottle
on 23 Nov 2009
at 20:36
8.1/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 8.5
hazy brown, very smooth and large light brown head. large lacings. sweet hoppy and malty aroma. sweetness reminds me of dried figs, but is drier than that. flavor is sweet malty, licorice, faint dried fruit, then hops kick in for real and makes it piny, grapefruity, ends bitter. nice ride. palate is very smooth, lots of "bite". One of the best barley wines i’ve had. Great winter warmer with the 10% alc.
Tried
on 17 Oct 2009
at 11:27
7.6/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 7.5
Bottle. Deep copper coloured pour with a nice beige head on top. Hoppy aroma. Tastes hoppy, sweet, caramel, dark fruit, malt, coffee. Decent barley wine from a top notch brewery.
Tried
from Bottle
on 28 Sep 2009
at 17:27
7.8/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 9
Bottle as shown. Pours a clear amber with a medium frothy off white head that lasts awhile leaving behind good sticky lacing along the glass. The aroma is a piney hops with citrus and caramel. Medium mouthfeel with a rich malt upfront with a pine hop in the bitter finish. Alcohol very present but not too overpowering. A very good barleywine from Great Divide.
Tried
from Bottle
on 26 Apr 2009
at 00:08
7.6/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 7.5
1 pint 6 fl. oz. bottle, courtesy of Cardinal Pub & Bar, Stavanger. ABV is 10.2%. Dark orange to brown colour, hazy. Big and lasting pale orange to beige head. The sweetish aroma has notes of pine, ripe fruits, raisins and molasses. Full and warming mouthfeel. Rich flavour with loads of malty sweetness, notes of raisins, caramel, molasses and udefined fruit, while the high IBU makes itself known towards the end, through a substantial and resinous hoppy bitterness.
Tried
from Bottle
on 14 Apr 2009
at 16:52
7.8/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 6
Overall 8
Super hazy ruby coloured body with a thinnish off-white head. Nice looking! Aroma of strong sweetness, a lot of fruit, malt, caramel and a good hoppy scent. Nice oaky flavour with vanilla noticeable up front with tons of hops and a load of sugar - a lot of absolutely everything. A huge beer, no matter how you look at it! Overall, almost too much, but nothing horribly wrong with it. I sampled this 65 cL bottle purchased from Chevy Chase Wine & Liquors on 23-June-2005 at Jon(R888710)’s.
Tried
from Bottle
on 20 Jan 2009
at 23:50