~’08-on tap-pours a tan head with copper color. Aroma is dark malt-molasses/caramel, dark fruit, spice hops. Taste is dark malt-molasses, dark fruit-prune/raisin, some resin hops. Nice.

Draught at the brewery on January 30, 2011As part of a sampler plateHazy brown color, off-white head. Sweet, fudge, malty, roasted, nuts taste. Sweet aftertaste. Smooth mouthfeel, mediumhigh bitterness. Sweet, malty, alcohol scent.

Tap @ brewery. Pours dark brown, with white head. Aroma strong dark fruit profile with nice roasted malts and sugar. Taste, was getting a lot of cooked pear/prune with caramel, thin chocolate body with some malts. Warming alcohol palate with a finish that is borderline barrel. A fine tasty barley wine.

On tap at brewery. Pours clear deep copper with lasting off white head. The aroma is an inviting load of dark fruity esters. I get grapes, cherries and sweet plums. I also smell melanoidin malts, mild roasty malts and some pine hops. The taste experience starts very viscous as the fluid ushers in mild fruitiness cut by roasty malt, mild pine hop bitterness and faint citrus hops. The fruitiness is a punch bowl full of cherries and dark grapes that become more raisin and prune like toward midway. I get a representation of fruit, roasted malts and hops into the after taste. It isn’t too hoppy or fruity for the style. I’d love to re-rate it with some age on it . . . maybe a year or so.

May, 09. A year and a half later this beer is getting pretty darn amazing. I have been getting a rich river of caramel coming forward that wasn’t there before. The mild fruity esters are blending together and mixing with the roasted malts. Wow!