Bottled at Oliver Twist, Stockholm. Clear ambr, small head. Sweet and viscous. Full bodied with dense syrupy mouthfeel, lots of chewy malt simmering in cognac. Deep, buttery malt flavours, brandy-like and warming, Thomas Hardy-style barley wine. Low hop presenence and bitterness, malt and alcohol comes to dominate.

Aroma of vegetables, particularly beets. Medium sweet, brown sugar, and osme more vegetable flavor. High alcohol is mostly hidden, but somewhat felt on the palate. Some caramel, and some hops.

On tap at Beer Run on 02/14/2010. Clear copper amber body with a small white head. Sweet caramel and light fruit aroma. Sweet caramel, fruit and light molasses flavor. Medium full body with moderately low carbonation.

Sampled on draft at Beer Run in Charlottesville, VA. Pours a clear amber color with a thin head. Decent head retention and lacing. Aroma of toffee, caramel, dark fruits, resiny/citrus hops. Taste is caramel, toffee, leafy bitter and citrus hops, a faint bit of chocolate and some stone fruit notes. Medium-full bodied. A bit boozy.

Big thanks, as always, to the MCLK. Thanks a ton Mark, I am so glad you moved down here. Bottle pours copper with light haze with gold hues and light tan head. The aroma has smooth dark to musty fruit notes and seem to bleed into a rye like spiciness, hops spiciness, full thick malty sweetness and a bit of heat at the end of the draw. The taste seems a bit organic and grassy moving into thick chewy malt sweetness, pine hop bitterness, a touch of pine hop flavor and grapefruit. It gets smooth and a bit grainy into the finish setting up a very pleasing finish. It leaves pine hops and fading yet faint sludgy sweet malts deep into the after taste.

An amber barley wine with a thin white head. A rather musty vinous aroma wit treacle, light floral hops, very perfumey. In mouth, a viscous pungent floral hops, with caramel base, light licorice, very pleasant. Flour City brewfest, August 15 2008.

Cask tumbler at DBA on 1/13/07
Dark beige, creamy head is small but well-retained atop a deep milk-chocolate brown body with very dark violet and auburn tints on the edges. Not bright, but not overly muddy/opaque. More like a medium clarity. Little specks of lace are left behind.
Very sweet notes of chocolate fudge soothe the nose. More challenging notes of light roasted barley impart a pleasant vinousness while a bit of dry breadiness balances things on the backside. The malts never go overboard, however, and the beer keeps a rather elegant air about itself, never getting too thickly sweet or cloying. Light, fresh yeast is quite notable on the end, and while it’s very clean and lightly nutty, it cuts short some of the sweetness with an almost nutty blandness. Medium sweet caramel and light toffee are continually found with more dry breadiness mixing with the dark fruits to give a slight tinge of sourness. Soft, graceful hops are moderately aromatic, juicy and floral and do not show any overdone bitterness. No alcohol noted, medium strength of aroma.
Pleasantly sweet in the mouth, quite velvety with layers of soft caramel, light toffee and milk chocolate. Minor breadiness and a lack of exposed, hard crystal malt is readily apparent here (and looking at the commercial description, that’s probably because there is no crystal malt in it, lol). A touch of prunes and light grapes midway through, finishing with dark chocolate, caramel and green, floral hops. Low carbonation, but no looseness of body for a cask ale. Really free from any syrupiness, sluggishness or cloying sweetness, despite the fact that it manages to stay mostly sweet the entire time. Clean yeast dryness is felt on the end. No warming from alcohol and no flaws. A lighter, less complex example, but done very well for what it is.

2005 vintage, Tap at the Blue Point tasting room. One of the clearer, more translucent barley wines I have ever seen. Golden yellow color, smell is indistinguishable. Taste is bitter, thin body for a barley wine. Hoped for more but was disappointed.

This beer was probably infected as we tasted it Blind @ Cornboy’s 2nd Annual BW tasting. 2003 bottle, It has a weird graininess and a weird fruitiness. But together its rather nice. Its thick and dark with flavors of orange and smoke. 8/4/7/3/16.