[2/1/17] Bottle at Mystic Brewery in Chelsea. Dark brown. Complex aroma with wine, caramel, vanilla, bourbon, dark fruits, oak, cookies, a bit of chocolate. Sweet flavor with vanilla, bourbon, wine, dark fruits, caramel, some cookies. Rounded mouthfeel. Very good.

Poured from bottle dark brown with minimal head. Aromas of caramel malt bread brown sugar and vanilla. Taste follows aroma with a nice barrel finish.

2013 bottle. Pours deep brown into a snifter. Crackly tan head recedes to nothing. Alcohol-soaked dark dried pit fruit aromas. Dark caramel and hot soy upfront turning to pit fruit before the lasting alcohol burn.

Bottle- pours dark brown- nose and taste of vanilla, oak, chocolate, dark nuts - medium body

2014 bottle, sampled at Ball Square Fine Wines, 12/4/15.
A ruddy brown body has a tan ring of bubbles that rapidly fizzles. Clarity is moderate to moderately-high.
Bourbon, brandy, light milk chocolate and all sorts of brown sugar, vanilla, concentrated honey and other such notes. It’s much more of a Belgian nose than an American barleywine. Though it’s still difficult to pinpoint exactly what’s going on here. Certainly the alcohol adds to the aroma but as the beer is going on two years old, it’s much more mellow heat-wise. Smells pretty good, overall. If I was pressed, I’d say dry milk chocolate, soft cherry/strawberry/apple esters, mild toffee and lightly spicy whiskey are the key aromatics here.
Pretty close to still, though very chewy and appropriately attenuated, with plentiful fruitiness, light caramel/toffee sweetness and nutty wood notes with just a touch of light bourbon mixing with the chocolate character. Surprisingly mellow, though maybe that’s not such a surprise given its age now.
It seems like they made a lot of the most recent batch (batch 2?, early 2014?) and have done periodic releases, as well as the De Cacao release (a portion aged on cacao nibs).

Draft at the brewery - Chelsea, Boston. Pours clear, honey-amber with a few bubbles for a head; the beer is mostly flat. Rich stuff with signs of mild oxidation, toffee, bread, old wood, mellow leaves, some leathery fruits. Full bodied with soft carbonation and oily mouthfeel. Warming finish with further oxidation characteristics - leather, toffee, well-ripened fruits. Tasty and pretty interesting. But bottles of this beer are wicked expensive.

Bottle shared at the 8th Richmond Industry Gathering, 12/1/13. Pours a viscous dark rust color, no head. Aroma of big boozy cognac, raisin and toffee. The taste is toffee, big whiskey notes, apples, peppery notes. Medium bodied, very hot. Interesting, but needs aging.