Not sure I'm on board with using juniper berries in a style as sweet as barleywine, especially one with the added touch of maple syrup. Starts with a nice, breakfast-like friendliness, the syrup and vanilla giving off a waffles-n-whipped cream vibe backed up by notes of apple and smoked tea. Bitterness on the back end shores up any cloy notes, but the juniper takes the brew in an odd herbal direction, like somebody stashed some pine needles in between your pancake stack. I'm a fan of hoppy-as-hell barleywines and juniper beers, but mixing the two ain't for me. Nose is caramel and toffee and juniper. Pour comes out a viscous, opaque brown with a modest off-white head and little lacing. Good texture; a year in the basement takes away any boozy heat. Too bad I can't reconcile the juniper and the sweetness.

Bottle from Old Town. Pours a clearish copper with a finger of foam that dissipates quickly. 2016 version. Big berry notes on the nose, dates and some faint peat aromas. Vanilla bean, earth, apricot & peat on the palate. Bitter w/ tart young strawberry-like quality. Almost like an old ale. The maple was kinda muted for me.

Bottle - pours brown - nose/taste of smoke, chocolate, toasted wood, maple and vanilla - medium body.

Bottle. Prune, smokey caramel malt, oak, and vanilla aroma. Cloudy medium brown with small head. Moderately sweet vanilla caramel malt and moderately bitter herbal hay flavor. Wood smoke and acidic finish. Nice.

Bottle: Cloudy medium brown with a wisp of off-white ring. Woody, caramel, maple syrup aroma. Taste is sweet, oaky, vanilla, caramel malt, syrup... I didn’t really catch any juniper, as it’s described, though. Smooth, though it packs a little alcohol burn towards the finish. Damn easy to sip too much of.

This was poured into a snifter.
The appearance was a ruddy/burnt brown color with a thin white to off white foamy head that dissipated at a nice pace. Spider web lacing weaves around the glass nice and thin.
The smell takes in some smoke, light peat, sweet vanilla bean, light licorice, sweet juniperberry, and a light spruce. Light caramel and toffee comes in as it warms.
The taste was mainly malty sweet with the smokiness delicately backing it up. Peat comes back to punch the flavor into full effect. Malty sweet in the aftertaste leading to a wet smokey/peaty finish.
On the palate, this one sat about a medium in body with a fair sessionable to sipping quality to it. Carbonation seems to run fairly light.
Overall, ratebeer says barleywine? Leaves me scratching my beard, hmmm...English Strong Ale or English Barleywine? Hmmm...not sure, but its good and I’d probably still have again despite not really knowing what style this is. Combination, perhaps?

12 oz bottle. Pours a mahogany color with full head. Aromas of metallic candi sugar, dried fruit, and toasted malts. Flavors of toasted oak, dry brown sugar, toasted malts, metallic Belgian yeast, and bitter resin. Somewhat bready. Hot. Complex and interesting

Poured from 12 fl oz bottle [bottled on 01/22/16]. Medium brown with light beige head. Bready caramel malt with subtle dark fruits, decent smoke, and mild juniper, light alcohol. A unique barley wine.