Deep copper and brown coloured body with a super thin off-white head. Aroma of vanilla, caramel, pure alcohol, rich toasted malts and quite a bit of dry oak and earthy notes. Full-bodied; Strong rich malty flavours with earth, caramel, grain and toffee coupled with tons of boozey alcohol and dry oak and barrel aging flavours. Aftertaste is rich and very pungent with vanilla notes, a lot of grain and caramelised sugars and touches of oak and toffee. Overall, a nice rich barley wine with a ton of alcohol notes, some subtle vanilla flavours and a rich caramelised sugar flavour that really shows through at the end. Good to sample, but probably not worth the price or the search! I sampled this 10 ounce pour on draught at Kloby’s Smokehouse in Columbia, Maryland on 29-November-2016 for US$15,00 (a lot!).

Bottle @ Mikkeller, Aarhus. Hazy dark red brown with a beige head. Aroma is sweet, malty, caramel, roasted malt, vanilla and bourbon. Flavor is very sweet and rather bitter. Dry and rather bitter finish with warming alcohol. Oily. 261116

Bottle @ Mikkeller, Aarhus. Nice head with good duration. Color is amber. Aroma and taste are vanilla, caramel, fruits, malt and hops. Nice fruity finish.

750mL bottle, courtesy of JPDurden24, pours with a murky brown body that has copper edges and supports a full lasting tan head of foam. The aroma offers up sweet malts, a thin ripe plum note, soft sweet barrel character and then a bit of toffee and dates into the end of the draw. The taste delivers smoothness that quickly gets into sweetened and smoothed over modest bourbon booze. It then gets into dates, figs and prunes blended with mild vanilla and then leading to a mostly bourbon finish. The bourbon is there all along but I enjoy how restrained and integrated it is into the beery notes. Nice sipper.

750 ml bottle into snifter, bottled on 8/26/2016. Pours fairly crystal clear dark ruby red/light brown color with a 1-2 finger fairly dense and fluffy light khaki head with good retention, that reduces to a thin lace cap that lingers. Light spotty soapy lacing clings on the glass, with a light amount of streaming carbonation retaining the cap. Aromas of huge vanilla, caramel, toffee, maple syrup, molasses, brown sugar, bourbon, toasted oak, brown bread, and coconut; with lighter notes of golden raisin, plum, apple, fig, date, apricot, and yeast/oak/toasted earthiness. Incredible aromas with fantastic complexity and balance of dark/bready malt, vanilla, bourbon barrel, and light-moderate fruity yeast notes; with great strength. Taste of huge vanilla, caramel, toffee, maple syrup, molasses, brown sugar, bourbon, toasted oak, brown bread, and coconut; with lighter notes of golden raisin, plum, apple, fig, date, apricot, and yeast/oak/toasted earthiness. Slight bitterness and bourbon/oak spiciness on the finish; with lingering notes of vanilla, caramel, toffee, maple syrup, molasses, brown sugar, bourbon, toasted oak, brown bread, coconut, dark fruit, and yeast/oak/toasted earthiness on the finish for a while. Incredible complexity, robustness, and balance of dark/bready malt, vanilla, bourbon barrel, and light-moderate fruity yeast flavors; with a good malt/oak spiciness balance, and zero cloying sweetness after the finish. Light carbonation and very full body; with a very smooth, creamy/silky, and lightly slick/syrupy balanced mouthfeel that is awesome. Alcohol is very well hidden with only a light warmth lingering after the finish; with zero barrel booziness. Overall this is an absolutely insane English barelywine style. All around incredible complexity, robustness, and balance of dark/bready malt, vanilla, bourbon barrel, and light-moderate fruity yeast flavors; very smooth and dangerously easy to sip on for the huge ABV. Very similar to the base beer; however the huge vanilla notes drown out a lot of the fruity yeast complexity, and it feels more intense on the darker malt sweetness and a bit thicker/richer on body. An insanely delicious offering.