Bottle from Drankenhandel Leiden. Malty and spicy with caramel, pine tree, spices. Medium sweet with a somewhat unbalanced bitterness. Light alcohol, but at 7.5% this doesn't bring that Barley Wine swagger.

Thanks Basement O.

Koolzuur, bloemig, caramel, bitter, stevig, alcoholisch, mist balans, wat dun van textuur, zoet, iets aards, moah

Light brown colour with lasting head. Aroma and flavour have some sweet malts but mostly sweet spices like clove.

33cl bottle. A clear dark golden beer with a white lacing. Aroma of herbs, caramel, anis. Taste of herbal malt, anis, caramel, cinnamon.

Geringe Karbonisierung. Dunkler, kräutrig hefiger Beginn. Wenig bitter, weich, leicht würzig. Helles Malz, die Kräuternoten flachen ab. Okay. 10/8/9/8/10/8

Uit fles op NHBF'21. Amber kleur, vuilwitte kraag. Kruidig, caramel, hoppig, herbaal, behoorlijk alcoholisch voor 7.5%, hars, er zit volgens mij ook een harsig kruid in verwerkt, bittere finish. Medium body. Niet verkeerd.

Prima, maar heeft echt niks met een barleywine te maken

“American barley wine” (so the label claims) by a ‘bierfirma’ operating in the kettles of the Noord-Hollandse Bierbrouwerij. Mousy, frothy, dense, egg-white head lacing in dots over an immediately cloudy and ‘dirty’ brownish-tinged amber beer with greyish beige edges – an ominous sign. Aroma of soggy old rusk, brown soap, fresh bay leaves, cloves, red apple peel, baker’s yeast, stewed pear, some sharper medicinal phenolic effects here and there. Estery onset in a very ‘dirty’ and unorganized way, restrained in sweetness though; apple and banana peel aspects, lightly peanutty, caramelly and bready malts, toasty bitterishness towards the end with a rooty, leafy, long hop bitterness – but also a strong wave of inappropriate spicy and even medicinal phenols distorting everything. Lingering powderiness in the end, from the yeast. This is unfortunately flawed on different levels: first of all, even a traditional English style barleywine these days would be stronger than 7.5% ABV, let alone an American one; secondly, the hops have not been used correctly here and thirdly, fermentation clearly has gone awry, with a very ‘dirty’ and phenolic effect. I do not see how this can be saved – better delete it from the range altogether…