(Bottle) (2021) (G beer #142) clear, bright orange brown amber color with a small cream colored head; aroma of longan, toffee; soft palate; rich, balanced flavour with a long, light bitter finish

Beer #7 of my 10,00th Beer Milestone Celebration! 2017 Vintage Pretty dark (much darker than expected) deep brown coloured body with a lighter copper glow towards the bottom, all with the faintest bit of a tan head that isn't really there at all, but shows some slight bubbles, better than nothing, it seems, but the carbonation isn't strong here at all. Aroma of super strong and pungent deep pitted fruits, with caramelised sugars, toffee, treacle, raisins, figs, oak, bourbon, toasted malts and a lot of grain, but the sugars are super strong here, as is the noticeable alcohol in the nose. Full-bodied; Super strong and very rich residual sugars and toasted malt notes show with a bunch more oak, grain, dryness and especially pitted fruits here - very strong and super pungent throughout with a noticeable bit of bourbon, but the 'traditional' barley wine flavours of pitted fruits and toasted malts are perhaps more noticeable here with a syrupy finish and a lot of alcohol, but not so much of the burn. Aftertaste shows the super rich and pungent nature of this with the residual sugars and alcohol most noticeable of course, but the toasted grains, the nuts, the earth, some rustic qualities and even some dryness, but the sugars and alcohol are pungent and balance out quite well for how strong this is. Overall, a very nice and super rich barley wine with some lighter bourbon notes, a little bit of the oak and grain, but the pitted fruits, sugars and alcohol make this very enjoyable, and perhaps the age of this has something to do with how 'good' and muted it is, but the sugars are balanced nicely and not too pungent or potent, while being very high in alcohol. I would typically complain about the format to this one, but I'm aware of Gigantic (at least at the time they made this) in bottling, so 500 mL is much better than 650 mL. However, I drank this over two days (it's hard to even finish 250 mL of this in a sitting!!!), so not too much to complain about for me, but this is RICH and not easy to get down, as expected, of course. I sampled this 50 cL bottle as Beer #7 [of 21 - 10 (for 10,000) of Each side of the 10,000 Beer Milestone and the 10,000th itself!] of my 10,000th Beer Milestone, purchased from Liqour Outlet in Boonton, New Jersey on 09-March-2018 for US$12,14, bottled in 2017 and sampled at my house here in Washington on 04-May-2023.