Aaron
(has 6 batches)

Bottle: Poured a cloudy brown color ale with a nice dark white foamy head. Aroma of caramelized malt with residual sugar notes and nice bourbon and oak notes. Taste is also a nice mix of caramelized malt notes with some bourbon and vanilla notes, light residual sugar notes with nice oak finish. Body is full with good carbonation with smooth warming alcohol notes. Incredibly well-balanced with super great level of complexity and drinkablity.

The blend of caramel/toffee malts, dried dark fruits & bourbon barrel is insane. Lovely just as the 2014.

Bottle with thanks to Youri! Pours hazy hazel, small beige head, good lacing. Aroma is bourbon, raison, cocoa, vanilla, cherry. Flavor is fully sweet, light plus bitter. Medium body, soft mouthfeel. A bit hot, but very good.

Thanks thanks thanks thanks (ty x infinity) to Huhzubendah for sharing the bottle! Poured into a taster showing translucent caramel brown with half a finger of caramel foam. The nose shows sweet notes of caramel, raisin, and a light oak mintiness. The palate is full bodied and lightly carbonated. Light alcoholic heat, perfectly balanced sweetness showing figs, honey, red apples, with a harmonious bourbon note of vanilla throughout the background. My god, this is the best barleywine I’ve had... yet.

500mL bottled 9/8/16, acquired from the brewery, drunk 2/3/17.
Light tan head showing moderate to moderately-strong retention tops a clear, caramel-tinted mahogany body with some deep magenta hues and a good clarity.
Caramel, chocolate and vanilla all boast a complex, rich maltiness with delightfully well-expressed bourbon right beside it. It’s a good mix of rich oak and spicy bourbon character that is almost perfectly balanced by the malt. Only a touch of heat, with no sharp booze or any heavy tannin/coconut/pineapple. It’s very clean and polished and you can’t deny the malt richness here. Fruitiness is minimal, with mostly some moderate raisin and fig character, but the dark fruit-like vinousness here is very minimal.
Malty, as expected, in the mouth with a soft, chewy, comforting, malty texture that allows caramel, light milk chocolate, vanilla, nougat and raisin plenty of room to roam on the palate. Bourbon is classy and restrained, but excellently expressed nonetheless, showing spice and wood and no harsh ester/alcohol sharpness. Definitely rich and sumptuous and obviously tending towards the sweet side, but I can respect that and the beer is so well-executed and polished that, as usual with Hill Farmstead, I find myself giving a high rating to a style I generally hate.

Bottle dated 09/06/2016.
This was poured into a tulip.
The appearance was a dark brown color with a thin layer of off white foamy head dissipated at a good pace. No lacing.
The aroma had some sweet bourbon, vanilla, slight wood, lush plum sweetness, and a light tobacco quality (far underneath).
The flavor yields to the blend of the sweetness of the previously mentioned aromas with way less tobacco (seems barely there). Sweet plum to bourbon aftertaste strolling into the finish.
On the palate, this one sat about a medium on the body with a fair sipping quality about it. Mild carbonation, surprisingly enough given the date, I thought there would have been a tad more, but this was exceptionally smooth with zero cloying.
Overall, as much as I love Sucaba by Firestone Walker, as far as English barleywines this one just takes the cake. Apparently, the beer I want to die with in my hands. But for my personal tribute, RIP Aaron Robards my beer mentor, I wish I could have drank this with you.

500ml bottle (thx, Hugo!) at my place with Alex and Ash. Bottled on 2016-09-08. Pours a dark brown with a dark beige head. Aroma is bourbon, leather notes, some dark fruits and sour notes. Taste is very sweet (too sweet as for me), with lots of bourbon notes. Very smooth. Great!

Sergey’s hunt
Brown color, small head. Nice malty aroma, but also quite strong alcohol. Sweet malt flavor, deep, rich, but the alcohol is very strong and balances the sweetness; some sweet liquorice, some Bourbon, and more alcohol in the end.
Very good, but not very complex, just a muscular beer, I had higher expectations.

Poured from bottle dated 4/20/14 thanks AdamChandler nice brown color with a thin beige head and nice lacing. Aromas of caramel toffee multiple dark fruits brown sugar. Taste is sweet malty layers upon layers perfectly balanced. This is quite a beer.