Brewer's Reserve: Bourbon Barrel Barleywine
Central Waters Brewing Co. in Amherst, Wisconsin, United States 🇺🇸
Barley Wine - Barley Series|
Score
7.68
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**2008 Great American Beer Festival Gold Medal Winner**
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Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 10 | Overall - 8
Bottle, 2012. Pours hazy reddish hazel, medium creamy tan head, that dissipates slowly leaving nice residual and decent lacing. Aroma is bourbon, vanilla, oak, dark sugars. Flavor follows, medium sweet, and light plus bitter, lots of dark sugars and bourbon vanilla flavors, a bit of oxidation. Fullish body, creamy mouthfeel.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8.5
Bottle from West at Ale Alpharetta. Clear brown, with a thin, beige head. Caramel, lots of vanilla, oak, butterscotch, and light piney hops. Very sweet, with a light hop bitterness. Heavy body, creamy, and a little warming. Overall, this is a nice, bourbon forward beer.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 10 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 9
12 oz bottle from bytemesis. 2014 vintage. Aroma consists of whiskey, wood, coconut, vanilla, raisin, molasses, licorice, cough drop--wow, this is right up there with the best of the barrel aged malt-driven beers I’ve ever had. Smells like rum bread. Pours muddy brown with orange tints and a one finger beige head that falls into a ring and skiff of foam fairly quick; laces a little. Taste is nearly as good as the aroma, with all descriptors in place. The only thing pulling it back a little is its harshness; it’s fairly boozy and the licorice/cough drop aspect is dominant in flavor, nearly astringent. Carbonation is average, body is full. Really tasty, but it’s a sipper.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
Bottle split in the hotel room, Tacoma, thanks to Ferris 07/11/14. Dark chestnut brown with a decent beige covering that retains well. Nose is dark toffee fudge, nutty, light spice, dates, cake mix, bourbon rinse, tangy dark fruit peel. Taste comprises sweet licks, bourbon well evident, prunes, dark fruit, toffee fudge. Medium + body, dine carbonation, drying close caked in dark fruit rinds and sweetish licks finsihing with lightly warming alcohol. Solid BW - Bourbon evident but doesn’t take over.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 9
Thnx to steacy! Pours murkey dark amber to brown no head. Smell is bourbon, wood, vanilla. Very nice. Taste is sharp, bit boozy. Sweet, grains. Much vanilla, oak, rather sharp. Love it!
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
Bottle - Toffee, chocolate and boozy bourbon. Dirty reddish brown and a thin light brown head. Raisin, brown sugar, prune and a long sweet finish. Bourbon is much lighter in the taste than in the nose.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 10 | Overall - 9
Beautiful amber mahogany color, but thin head. Big malty whoop in the nose with lots of vanilla, bourbon, marshmallows and moderately sweet. Sticky, nice mouth with tons and tons of malt backbone, smooth, slightly boozy, lots of vanilla, oak, cherries, there are a fair amount of hops in there too. Just big, bad and delicious from start to finish. I love this stuff.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5
Sample at Great Taste of the Midwest on 08/09/2014: Hazy dark brownish-amber color with a thin tan head that diminishes steadily. Small patches of lacing. Aroma of bourbon, malt and dark fruit. Full-bodied with flavors of oaky bourbon, caramel malt and vanilla. The finish is mildly boozy with an oaky vanilla aftertaste. Enjoyable all around.