500mL bottle, pours a deep dark mahogany with a small tan head. Aroma is complex as hell, full of deep bourbon barrels, cognac, brown sugar, and toffee. Flavour is remarkably complex and elegant, with deep bourbon barrels, cognac, dark dried fruits, toffee, and brown sugar. Wonderful cohesion of the barrels, with endless malt depth. Lovely.

Big fat bourbon aroma with rich, sticky toffee richness. Raisins, beautiful cognac, this has a gorgeous fruitiness, accentuated by the cognac, and the richness is matched by the bourbon. Intense, and just excellent all the way through.

500mL bottle. Pours murky dark brown with a minimal beige head. Thick malty nose, lots of bourbon barrel, molasses, gentle perfume. Flavour has caramel malts, burnt toffee, bourbon barrels, a touch of fruity cognac. Rich, complex, and well-balanced. This is excellent.

Medium brown. Slight haze. No head. Rich and fruity. Great complexity with brown sugar, pear, figs...drenched in bourbon. Balanced, soft body, vibrant. This is really nice.

American oak, some dark fruits, boozy. Taste is along the same lines, a bit on the thinner side than I expected, a lot of caramel, some dark fruits. Moderately to highly sweet. Good one, but I don't understand the hype around.
Thx, Oleksandr!
848416=40

Barleywine from a brewpub in Seattle, thanks tderoeck for sharing on Proevertjesdag at Bart A.’s place in Oudenburg. Pale greyish off-white, moussey, medium thick head breaking over a dark caramel to almost chocolate brown robe with warm copper-red glow. Intense but refined bouquet of ‘boerenjongens’, candied cherries, caramel, amaretto, vanilla-exuding oak wood, port sauce with venison, candied orange peel, bayleaf, hazelnut, brandy. Concentratedly sweet onset, raisins in brandy, candied plum, touch marmalade with a very thin porcini-ish umami accent; full, oily malt sweet core, softly carbonated, vinous, with sweet caramelly and raisin-bready edges as well as something almondy, graced with hints of vanilla, toffee and cinnamon as well as a supporting, perfectly integrated peppery hop accent, in the end gently warmed by brandy- and liqueur-like alcohol accentuating the nutty side of the malts and continuing a candied effect which never becomes too sweet or boring. This is a perfectly finetuned, sophisticated, balanced yet intense and highly profiled barleywine somewhere in between the English and American substyles of the genre – an absolute masterpiece as far as I am concerned, because if barleywine is done perfectly right, it is capable of this kind of greatness indeed.

7/XII/24 - 50cl bottle from a trade, shared @ the Big Bottles Tasting / Proevertjesdag (Oudenburg), BB: n/a, 2020 vintage (2024-1259) Thanks to Aaron for the trade!

Clear deep ruby to burgundy purple beer, small irregular beige head, unstable, non adhesive. Aroma: nice, very rich and layered, chocolate, lots of caramel, very malty, slightly oxidized, a bit leathery. MF: soft carbon, medium to full body. Taste: nice, very rich, lots of caramel, malty, vanilla, very rich, lovely, soft acidity, a bit sugary, very complex, very nice! Aftertaste: gentle roast, caramel, alcohol, very nice stuff, soft oxidation notes, a bitter touch, quite some dried fruits. Really good stuff!

It's nice, at a nice time, with nice peeps.