Bottle, at bottle share, thanks to Ryan or Chris. Pours red brown. Caramel, cherry, fruit, biscuit, toffee, Christmas cake, raisins. Syrupy body. Good.

Bottle shared by Alex @Luppolo Station (Rome), thank you! Rossastra, intensa, schiuma bianco sporca leggera. Al naso note di caramello, fichi secchi, ciliegie sotto spirito, amaretti. In bocca è dolce all'attacco con leggero amaro-acidulo finale. Corpo pieno, carbonazione media. Ottima.

Perennial’s dark barleywine, depicting the northern cardinal or redbird, 75 cl bottle from De Caigny. Medium thick, pale yellowish beige, irregularly lacing head leaving flat ‘islands’ in the middle but eventually dissolving completely under influence of the alcohol; deep coppery-hued burgundy-bronze robe, misty. Strong and very Belgian quadrupel-like aroma pushed upwards by the very high ABV content: figs, raisins, walnut liqueur, toffee, brownies, blue plum, dried banana, cognac, gingerbread, brown rum, treacle, kahlua and a dash of liquorish candy in the background. Sweet onset, dried banana, candied fig, raisin, all covered in brown sugar sweetness, medium carbonated, with a full, bit syrupy mouthfeel – yet in this respect not even betraying its formidable strength. Sweet, very toffeeish and caramelly malt body with brown-bready ‘fluffiness’ to it, spicy cinnamon- and clove-like notes and of course a lot of warming, rum-like alcohol heating the end stage – but still not harshly astringent, thus making this beer feel considerably lighter than the near-14% ABV it boasts. Sticky brown sugary sweetness lingers along with a herbal hop bitter touch and lots of malt sweetness. Very full, big, ambitious barleywine, but in its residual brown sugar sweetness and darker, toffeeish malt profile, much closer to a quadrupel than to a true Anglo-Saxon barleywine. The only thing I am left wondering about, is why it was necessary to make it this strong, as pouring down a bottle even with two people was not a very easy task…