8

Recognizable barleywine notes but totally get the ginger and dark rum flavors as well, on point dark and stormy cocktail beer.

6.2

Appearance - 4 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7

Going in the right direction here, has a lot of elements I want in a barleywine. A little chocolate but more on the dark fruit end: raisins, rum. The ginger adds a strange element, not sure it works, I’d rather let the focus be on the fruitiness of the fermentation and the rum barrel. So what’s the cocktail referred in the description - a dark and stormy? I guess that’s where the the Stormgazer name comes from. I don’t drink them much so I can’t say it matches, but I’ve had plenty a moscow mule and a kentucky mule, and I guess I can see some parallels. Still the ginger is a tad overwhelming, I’d rather not have it or at least not so much of it. Its OK but I can’t say I much want to finish this 750, and I’m a bit let down by a beer I paid $18.99 for. Dark brown color, no head, low carbonation.