3,000th Rating! 2004 vintage! That’s right, I’m drinking an entire bomber of 12 year-old-Gnarly Wine, which was to celebrate having over 600 likes on my Facebook page. Right up front, there’s little complexity to this beer. No marvelous new or unusual blends of hop and malt. But I’m happy that this Barley Wine has been in my "beer cellar" for 12 years, through two moves, flooding, and summer temperatures, and this is still splendid. A tan fizzy head over a deep garnet body. The smell is an easy note of sherry with some toasty malts in the background. I get the same thing in the taste. With a cellared beer, I’m afraid of phenol from aged malts, but there’s none of this here. Just some strong caramel malts in a still fizzy beer. Should be overly sweet, but there is still some hop bitterness to keep that in check. It has aged splendidly, and I recall this was pretty reasonably priced at the time. Another one to build a nice vertical for.

Flaska från SB. Något år gammal. Smak och doft av karamell, smörkola, brunt socker, sirap, torkad frukt som plommon, russin samt övermogen frukt med smak av mango och papaya och honung. Kraftfull, rund och len, stor sötma, välbalanserad och smakrik, fin beska. Gott!

Flaska från SB. Ca 1 år gammal. Stor söt fruktig doft och smak. Toffee och karamell möter övermogen papaya, mango, persika och nektar. Kanske väl söt och lite mer humle hade väl inte skadat. Men den söta fruktigheten är riktigt fin. Mycket gott.

Tap at Harry’s in Redwood City. Beautiful aromatic blend of honey, caramel and toffee bites. Clear ruby with chunky oatmeal head. Rich, rich, rich caramel and blackstrap molasses flavor. Solid cedar and floral hops. A little tar at the end. Delightful.