7.9

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5

7th September 2020
Clear gold - amber beer, small cream colour head. Smooth and softish palate, mildly dry, reasonable fine carbonation. Smooth malts with a nice soft creamy sweetness. Soft bouncy dried fruits. Light soft creamy brandy. Finishes light with a touch of marmalade like bitterness. An aged and elegant barleywine. Good stuff.

9

Backlog

8.4

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5

American style barley wine, a collab by three of America’s craft beer pioneers, Deschutes, Rogue and North Coast. Vintage bottle of three years old, huge thanks to tderoeck for the trade! Thickly ’papery’ lacing, moussy, irregular, egg-white head with some large bubbles here and there, thickly retaining on the edges, with thin patches of off-white foam in the middle; hazy orange blonde robe with salmon pink hue and thin strings of lively bubbles here and there, turning a more murky brownish-tinged amber with a lot of protein and dead yeast dots at the bottom after the yeast sediment is added. Powerful, seductive, rich and pungent bouquet of dried orange flesh, mandarin peel, bitter honey, pink grapefruit, biscuit, marmelade, Grand Marnier, cognac, candied apple, peppercorns, barbecued chicken, paprika powder, bourbon-soaked raisins, fig, old ginger root, dried banana, almond, some earthy radish, dry hay, persimmon, vague hint of home made beef broth (old proteins probably). Concentrated candied sweet onset, lots of candied orange and candied fig, hints of persimmon and dried mango, sourish undercurrent (redcurrant), very thin umami touch (fried chicken), finely tingling carbo just fit for the style, thickly oily, vinous mouthfeel, smooth and lean. Lovely supple malt sweet core, caramelly and a tad nutty with a slight toasted bittering edge, carrying the candied fruit to the finish, where it is confronted with a still pungent hop bitterness (though certainly a lot less aromatic than when it was young), resinous and grapefruity with dried mango- and exotic pepper-like traits, spicy and drying, almost of the same potency as in an imperial IPA (the stronger of which are often hard to distinguish from American barley wine); the malt sweetness and the candied fruits nevertheless continue till deep into the throat, not becoming cloying or bothersome at any point, and especially near the end of the bomber, an earthy yeast touch shows up as well. Unsurprisingly, there is a lot of alcohol ’afterwarmth’, cognac- and orange liqueur-like but well positioned. Retronasally, the first, still very faint signs of oxidation are already there, so I suppose it was a good idea to open it now instead of waiting for another year. Very typically an American barley wine, this one, showcasing American hop pungency, but probably having lost a lot of its wildly aromatic properties by now; everything seems to have mellowed a bit. Barley wine by nature is a style intended for extended cellaring, but cases are made that this is not applicable to its American variant due to that New World hop fragrancy; I do think, however, that this one has benefited from a few years’ rest in a cellar, having become maltier, sweeter and mellower, and therefore honoring the old barley wine tradition probably more adequately than it would have in young condition. Whatever the case, this is a thing of beauty and class, conveying the legacy of the three collaborating breweries to the full.

7.4

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5

Bottle. Pours a hazy orange with small off white head that diminishes quickly. The aroma is citrus, booze, dark fruit. Medium mouth, roast, raisin, booze, nice bitterness, very nice.

6.6

Appearance - 4 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 2 | Overall - 7.5

Split wood, thistle, toffee nose, volatile. Cloudy amber, thin head. Overripe orange, oak, lemon zest. Some oxidation, with subtle toffee notes on the back end. Full body, hot, moderate carbonation. A year old, but might need another year.

7.6

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5

Bottle: Soft orange color with a thin beige head. Light and airy nose, citrus and florals. Lightly malty. A flavor somewhere in between a fresh, young barleywine and a DIPA that’s on the malty side. Good citrus hop flavors. Drinks way too easily for 10.2%... nicely done.

7.4

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 6.5

The appearance has a somewhat hazy golden colored body with a thin less than a half fingered white foamy head that barely leaves any lacing.
The smell has some juicy grapefruit hoppiness up front with a decent caramel malt bill backing that up fairly nice with some nice woody edges to balance it out just a tad.
The taste is mainly sweet through the combination of the sweet grapefruit hoppiness to the caramel malts, gee weez (boy she drinks like a DIPA) that has a nice juicy grapefruit aftertaste and quick dry finish.
On the palate, she sits about a medium on the body, comes across sessionable - hmmm... perhaps - weird for an American Barleywine that comes across as an DIPA to me. Carbonation even has a decent harshness like a DIPA.
Overall, hmmm....ok, I like it, I would have it again, I’m just trying to figure out how this thing really is an American Barleywine as it just seems more like a DIPA. Maybe I just need to try a fresher bottle.

7.8

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

Draft: Poured a murky copper. Aroma is fruit and malt. Sweet sticky fruit and malt with a high but hidden alcohol content.

6.6

Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5

Bottle from Brewery Creek, Vancouver, bb 03/07/14
Hazy golden to light amber color with compact head; thick lace. The arom ais quite malty and fruity; but it’s also a bit boozy; it has a little fruity impression, like those strong European Lagers; very light aroma of cereals too. Smooth mouthfeel, with a good body strength; the malt flavor has a cereal character, some hay; moderate sweetness; strong bitterness.
The hop profile is almost British (stronger than, but not fruity at all), acceptable; but the golden malt profile is far from exciting; those darker and sweeter Barley Wines are better.

7.4

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5

aroma hints at alcohol warmth, clear golden with a skin of ahead, mostly barley malt in aroma and taste. Smooth yet strong, nice winter warmer.