Bottle. Brown body, small head and wonderful aromas up front. Raisins, brown sugar, booze, toffee... Sadly, the aromas seems to dissipate a bit as it airs out. Flavor is a mishmash of booze and sweet malt at first, but then fades into a lovely and rich barleywine finish, complete with ABV warmth.

Location: 12 oz bottle from Gilly's, 3/14/10 - Selection Sunday!

Aroma: Nose is boozy and fruity with a good amount of caramel
Appearance: Pours a hazy burnt orange-brown color with a thin head
Flavor: Flavors is relatively sweet with lots of fruity notes and a bit of earthy hops
Palate: This beer is somewhat hot and the carbonation is pretty low
Overall Impression: This is a decent Barley Wine. It has some interesting things going for it for sure, and it is solid. I personally would prefer more hop presence from the style, but that is a personal preference. Even so, this one just doesn't quite have anything to it to make it feel special.

Pours light mahogany into a snifter. Tan head recedes to skim surface. Alcohol soaked pit fruit aromas. Sweet caramel upfront turning to sour fruits and slightly bitter resin in the lasting finish.

Bottle, $6.49 at Wine Warehouse, Charlottesville. Pours a clody deep amber with a frothy head (about 2"). Dark chocolates and dark fruits in the nose. Light and dark chocolates , cherry cordial, and sweet flavor. Nice.

On tap at Ginger Man, NYC. Pours a dark brown/maroon with a slight, white head. Sugary sweet aroma with notes of caramel and dark fruits. Taste is faintly hoppy with a small dose of malts. Most of the flavor is sweetness: brown sugar, toffee, some chocolate. Hints of red wine, or maybe whiskey. Either way, it’s hints of alcohol. Nice, lingering sweet finish. Made a great sipping beer. Good stuff.

22 oz. 2006 bottle, bought at Arcadia’s 10th Anniversary party. YIKES!! GUSHER as I open the bottle. That has to count a point or two off the presentation. After that, a definite smell of sherry, rum and then Flemish sourness, which could indicate a bacterium behind the gusher, but I think otherwise. Murky brown color, a this but determined and lacy head. Taste has some more of that sourness, but a big nose of alcohol and some hop roughage. Not like most previous barley wines, I was going to say, but then I realized this is the first barley wine I’ve had since last December. Anyway, alcoholic, as I said, with notes of plum and raisin. The malt bill on this description indicates they went for basic beer flavor with only the Crystal to make it the expected color. No matter that I’ll be yelled at because the computer station smells like beer. And it’s my 65th beer rated this month, expanding on it as my Best Beer Month Ever!™

Bottle. Ruby red - brown colour, light brown head. Aroma of caramel malts, glue, candy sugar, red fruits. Flavour of sweet caramel malts, syrup, fruits. A bit too sweet to my liking.

Deep murky hazy brownish coloured body with a light tan head that fades very fast. Aroma of potent sugars, malt, yeast and alcohol of course - nice and bright. Full-bodied; Strong assertive sugar and malt flavours up front with a very potent alcohol and peat flavour tucked in with some sugars. Aftertaste potent from the hops, and very bittered from the alcohol - you can’t get away from it. Overall, a strong and not so mild alcohol flavour that lasts indefinitely. Probably worth trying if you like high ABV beers, but the size of the bottle and the alcohol percentage aren’t great. I sampled this 65 cL (why do they still make them this large?) bottle purchased from Kybecca on 31-May-2008, sampled on 02-May-2009 on the Eastern Shore of Virginia.

Had a bottle of this back in early 2008 and recently retried it again on draught (at Sunset Grill) January 2009. The bottle I remember being punishingly caramelly-sweet with the typical fruitiness, bordering on tartness at points, of the house character imparted by the breweries yeast and/or bottling line? Anyways, it was strong, alcoholic and sweet, nearly cloying, with all of the bad traits of crystal and munich malt (meatiness, iced tea-like flavors, sharp, punchy cereal-like qualities and a strong overdrying on the finish). The hops were toned down and this wasn’t a mess of alpha acids, at least. Recently on draught, I found the beer a little more balanced, with a decidedly strong chocolate and pale and or pils malt combination to produce a chocolate caramel sweetness with a soft, inviting mouthfeel. Seems like the malt bill has been changed somewhat? Not much complexity and still a touch too much alcohol, but the same discretion with the hops at least. Some light plum-cherry fruitiness and bits of toffee-caramel on the finish.