Critical Hit
(has 1 batch)
Ninkasi Brewing Company in Eugene, Oregon, United States 🇺🇸
Barley Wine - Barley Regular|
Score
7.29
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R&D Series. In the Ninkasi tradition, this barley wine is hopped to high heaven –using more than 16 pounds per barrel! Critical Hit’s rich, malty expression is balanced by 16 varieties of hops that linger on the palate. Its high gravity nature warms the cheeks and soul. Critical Hit does maximum damage, so you might have to roll to save if you take this ale for granted!
Massive citrus, earthy, resinous, and grassy hop flavor is balanced with the melanoidin complexity of port and sherry notes, creating a powerful and warming taste experience. Big citrus, earthy, grassy, and pine hop aroma with port and sherry notes mingle in this beer conditioned for over a year. Aggressive bitterness dominates up front with a large array of hop flavor spanning citrus, earthy, resinous, grassy and dank. Subtle caramel and melanoidin compounds oxidize (in a good way) to create the port and sherry notes that are a trademark to these extremely strong beers called barley wine. The bitterness of the beer helps round out the intensity of alcohol and the malt complexity to make a non-cloying and very, very tasty beer. This may be the one beer that you still need to sip rather than quaff but it is deceptive for the style.
Hops: Columbus, Millenium, Northern Brewer, Simcoe, Falconers Flight, Galena, Peerle, Santiam, Ahtanum, Fuggle, Glacier, Hersbrucker, Liberty, Spalt, Hallertau
Massive citrus, earthy, resinous, and grassy hop flavor is balanced with the melanoidin complexity of port and sherry notes, creating a powerful and warming taste experience. Big citrus, earthy, grassy, and pine hop aroma with port and sherry notes mingle in this beer conditioned for over a year. Aggressive bitterness dominates up front with a large array of hop flavor spanning citrus, earthy, resinous, grassy and dank. Subtle caramel and melanoidin compounds oxidize (in a good way) to create the port and sherry notes that are a trademark to these extremely strong beers called barley wine. The bitterness of the beer helps round out the intensity of alcohol and the malt complexity to make a non-cloying and very, very tasty beer. This may be the one beer that you still need to sip rather than quaff but it is deceptive for the style.
Hops: Columbus, Millenium, Northern Brewer, Simcoe, Falconers Flight, Galena, Peerle, Santiam, Ahtanum, Fuggle, Glacier, Hersbrucker, Liberty, Spalt, Hallertau
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7/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 7
Bottle sample at a tasting at Neiman’s place. Thanks Neiman. Lovely clear reddish amber with a beige head. Aroma of malt, piney and resinous hops (slightly stale), caramel and cookies. Flavor has some sweet malt, caramelly and cookie-ish, some fruitiness and quite a bit of bitter piney hops. Medium to full-bodied. Nice.
Tried
from Bottle
on 21 Mar 2014
at 11:49
8.6/10
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Appearance 10
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 10
Overall 8.5
22oz bomber share courtesy of dcschiller. It pours with a murky amber body that has some golden hues and supports a tan head of foam. The aroma offers up big musty malt sticky pine hops, a sliver of grapefruit and then some molasses. The taste has a nice mix of resiny pine hop heavy bitterness and then streams of molasses to midway. Malts bubble forward for a moment before the resiny pine hop bitterness and a sliver of sweetened citrus hops take over and bring this to a rich rewarding finish. Solid bold American style Barleywine.
Tried
from Can
on 19 Mar 2014
at 19:19
7.8/10
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Appearance 10
Aroma 8
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 7
2011 Bottle, #4272/6200. Dark amber pour with a creamy finger of beige head. Intense nose of faded citrus, floral, caramel, and hints of the 11.7% ABV. Age has smoothed out any bite this may have had; it sure is smooth. Caramel and toffee flavor, along with the faded citrus and florals. Finish is soft and leaves a lingering bit of toffee behind. Reminds me of Old Boardhead. Probably not much value in aging this any longer… good stuff, but I’d like another to try fresh. A good experience and seemingly a bit dangerous at this point; I feel like I could throw this back like a session ale on a hot day!
Tried
from Bottle
on 06 Jan 2014
at 04:51
6.8/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 7
Cloudy amber,small beige head.Nose of brown sugar & light alcohol.Woody palate of alcohol,malt, with a slightly dry hop finish
Tried
on 22 Dec 2013
at 12:16
7.6/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 6
Overall 8.5
Bomber. Pours a clear deep copper color with a medium white head. A big dusty fruity nose. The flavor is on the side of fruity and highly hopped BWs with some caramel, biscuit and light toffee. Very nice brew. Clean and easygoing. No sense of 10%.
Tried
on 31 Jul 2013
at 23:49
7.5/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 6
Overall 8
Draft - Vintage 2010 - Sweet fruit, strawberry and hoppy floral notes. Cloudy orange with a thin head. Sweet pine and some of those sweet fruit. Booze on the finish, but overall pretty drinkable for a barley wine. ---Rated via Beer Buddy for iPhone
Tried
from Draft
on 05 Jun 2013
at 18:44
7.2/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 8
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 7
2010 Reserve, Bottle #1062 Aroma is heavily tilted towards malt, but there is still a surprisingly hoppy note. The hops give it a hint of citrus, but also a pine and earthy note. Lots of sweet caramel malt of varying degrees of darkness along with some notes of toffee. Some raisin and fig notes along with burnt sugar. Pours a murky copper to light brown with a hint of ruby. Small, but thick light tab head that recedes fairly quickly to the edges. No lacing with medium sized legs. Flavor starts with darker caramel along with faint roast and chocolate. You then get a sweeter caramel note with some fruit - raisin, fig and plum. Moderate bitterness with only faint pine and citrus notes. Some alcohol spice in the finish with lingering burnt sugar and bitterness. Some balanced malt character in the finish. Bitterness and alcohol are both a bit on the harsh side. Mouthfeel is medium to medium full bodied with medium carbonation. Astringency is medium low with moderate alcohol warmth. Overall this is not a bad beer, but its not amazing either. The bitterness is a touch harsh and lingers unpleasantly which drowns out a lot of the malt character. I wonder if this would get better with even more time. ---Rated via Beer Buddy for iPhone
Tried
from Bottle
on 15 May 2013
at 22:16
7.9/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 8.5
Bomber from Total Wine in Sacramento, CA. 2011 bottle # 2211/6200. Pours very deeply ruddy with a slight beige head. Aroma is malty with medium dark fruit. Full bodied. Flavor is heavy malt, fig/raisin/plum with some arguably citrus hop. There’s a hop bite. Know that. Heat is enjoyable. With strength at 18 and charm at 16 how can one not like this character. It finishes malty, plummy and bitter. At least that’s my take. Just tasty.
Tried
from Bottle
on 30 Mar 2013
at 16:36
7.8/10
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Appearance 7
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 7.5
Sample from 2011 bottle #4547/6000 at the Blarney Wine tasting on 03/16/2013. The beer pours a hazy orange-amber color with a medium thin and foamy light beige head that diminishes slowly to a film. Partial rings of lacing. Aroma of hops, malt and citrus. Full-bodied with flavors of hops, grapefruit and grainy malt. The finish is resiny hops and malt. Couldn’t pass up the impulse buy for the label alone, but it turned out to be pretty good overall.
Tried
from Bottle
on 22 Mar 2013
at 21:32
7.5/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 8
On tap at Toronado for Barley Wine Fest. Pours and orange-amber of slight haze with off-white head. Aroma of hops and sweet grain. Lots of hops and bitterness on the palate leading to a fresh clean beer at this alcohol level.
Tried
from Draft
on 17 Feb 2013
at 20:28