500mL bottle, pours a cloudy dark mahogany with a small white head. Aroma brings out earthy rye, caramel, bready malt and a touch of oak. Flavour is complex, with lots of oak, light earthiness and caramel. Wonderful balance between caramel and rye, and there is even some hoppy astringency lingering to balance it out. Excellent.

500 ml bottle into snifter, bottled on 10/22/2015. Pours crystal clear deep ruby red color with a 1-2 finger fairly dense light khaki head with good retention, that reduces to a thin cap that lingers. Nice spotty soapy lacing clings around the glass, with a moderate amount of streaming carbonation retaining the cap. Aromas of huge caramel, toffee, molasses, dark bread, spicy rye, toasted oak, vanilla, raisin, plum, fig, date, apple, herbal, light pepper, and yeast/toasted earthiness. Damn nice aromas with great complexity, robustness, and balance of dark/bready/rye malt, fruity yeast, oak, and moderate earthy hop notes; with great strength. Taste of huge caramel, toffee, molasses, dark bread, spicy rye, toasted oak, vanilla, raisin, plum, fig, date, apple, herbal, light pepper, and yeast/toasted earthiness. Moderate herbal hop bitterness and rye/oak spiciness on the finish; with lingering notes of caramel, toffee, molasses, dark bread, spicy rye, toasted oak, vanilla, raisin, plum, fig, date, apple, herbal, pepper, and oak/toasted earthiness on the finish for a while. Damn nice complexity, robustness, and balance of dark/bready/rye malt, fruity yeast, oak, and moderate earthy hop flavors; with a great malt/spice/bitterness balance; with a slight hop/oak astringency on the finish. Light-moderate dryness from bitter/spiciness that increases through the glass. Light-medium carbonation and medium-full body; with a very smooth, moderately creamy/sticky, and lightly slick balanced mouthfeel that is nice. Alcohol is well hidden with only a small warmth lingering after the finish. Overall this is an excellent rye English barleywine style. All around great complexity, robustness, and balance of dark/bready/rye malt, fruity yeast, oak, and moderate earthy hop flavors; and very smooth to sip on for the huge ABV. A very enjoyable offering.

On tap at Pap pouring up with a slightly hazy amber body that supports a tiny light tan ring of foam. The aroma offers up sweet malts and some molasses and then a touch of pale like malt sweetness mixed with a modest degree of sweet ripe cherries. The taste starts smooth with thick malt sweetened ripe cherry meat and then it picks up malts and molasses nuanced by a pleasing level of a rye bread like twang that is fully tempered and evened out by the malts but sort of enhanced as well by a thin layer of somewhat spicy to pine like hoppiness. Nice well rounded barleywine.