Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5.5

Draft at Cork City. Unclear medium orange color, lasting, sheeting beige head. Faint aroma of bread, citrus, and pine. Flavor is bready with a bit of hops. Not much else. Lighter body. A little thin, smooth, clean. Very much the definition of okay. 2.8: 5/4/5/3/11

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5

Bottle. Amber beer with a cream head. Berry and pine aroma with lemon. Grapefruit and pine flavor with berry. Medium bodied. Good bitterness. Grapefruit and pine lingers with earth.

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 4.5

12oz bottle pours a sunset orange with some sticky, white head. Nose didn’t start well, but opened up to a nice orange juice and orange peel character, vinous, vegetal, light soap. Flavor is a little too ’beery’, malt, stale hop, paper bag, orange and light grist notes save a drain pour.

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5

22 ounce bottle into snifter, bottled on 10/21/2016. Pours clear nearly opaque dark brown color with a 1-2 finger dense and fluffy light khaki head with great retention, that reduces to a nice cap that lingers. Nice spotty soapy lacing clings around the glass, with a fair amount of streaming carbonation retaining the cap. Aromas of big caramel, brown sugar, brown bread, nuttiness, toffee, toasted biscuit, molasses, cocoa, raisin, cherry, plum, fig, date, herbal, wood, pepper, and tobacco; with lighter notes of dark chocolate, coffee, anise, smoke, char, and roast/toasted earthiness. Damn nice aromas with great balance and complexity of dark/bready/roasted malts, earthy hops, and light-moderate fruity yeast notes; with great strength. Very mild booze in the aromas as it warms. Taste of huge caramel, brown sugar, brown bread, nuttiness, toffee, toasted biscuit, molasses, cocoa, raisin, cherry, plum, fig, date, herbal, wood, pepper, and tobacco; with lighter notes of dark chocolate, coffee, anise, smoke, char, and roast/toasted earthiness. Light-moderate herbal/spicy hop and roast/char bitterness on the finish. Lingering notes of caramel, brown sugar, brown bread, nuttiness, toffee, toasted biscuit, molasses, cocoa, dark fruits, herbal, wood, pepper, tobacco, light coffee/smoke/char, and roast/toasted earthiness on the finish for a while. Fantastic complexity, robustness, and balance of dark/bready/roasted malts, earthy hops, and light-moderate fruity yeast flavors; with a great malt/hop bitter/sweet balance; with zero cloying, acrid, or astringent flavors after the finish. Light dryness from hop/char bitterness, increasing though the glass. Light-medium carbonation and fairly full body; with a smooth, creamy/silky, and lightly slick/sticky/chalky balanced mouthfeel that is great. Alcohol is extremely well hidden; a small increasing warmth, with very mild booziness lingering after the finish. Overall this is a fantastic American strong ale! All around outstanding complexity, robustness, and balance of dark/bready/roasted malts, earthy hops, and light-moderate fruity yeast flavors; very smooth and dangerously easy to sip on for the enormous ABV. Very rich and complex; never feels out of balance, despite all of the different hop/malt additions. A highly enjoyable offering. Really superb for only being 7 months old at the ABV. Would be interested in cellaring another. Outstanding price for the bomber vs ABV ratio.

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

Draught @ Draught 55. Opaque brown with small creamy beige head, sweet caramel aroma, low carbonation, sweetish coffee-caramel taste with alcohol undertones, smooth thickish body, long mocha finish. Very smooth and satisfying.

Appearance - 4 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5

Deep very dark brown coloured body with a large, oil slick on top, showing a touch of lighter brown head, but this is pretty much all about the oil on top and the opaque depth of deep dark brown body. Aroma of alcohol (surprise), honey, maple syrup, birch, rich malt, toffee, caramel, earth, yeast and a heavy dose of anise and deep spices. Full-bodied; Super deep and pungent malt character with a large alcohol presence (of course), tons of sweetness from the maple syrup and honey tastes and a deep soy sauce and meaty character at the end with bunches of flavours, some not showing a lot of typical beer flavours. Aftertaste shows quite a bit of bitterness from the malt, alcohol, spices, yeast and earthy sweetness, but some nice, yet pungent flavours and moderate complexity, despite the tons of alcohol around. Overall, a very pungent (as expected) beer, but showing some nice almost barley wine mixed with imperial stout or old ale flavours, showing a ton of sweetness, a good malt base and a rich alcohol bite that shows fairly well despite the high content and still easy-enough to drink for this beer, but perhaps that has something to do with the age! Good to try, if you can find it and hold onto it for a while, but I’m guessing either you cannot find it now at all or if you DO have it, it’s already fairly old! I sampled this twelve ounce (I could not drink any more than 355 mL!) bottle purchased from Ramsay Liqours in Ramsay, New Jersey on 22-February-2013 for an unknown amount of money, sampled at home in Washington on 22-April-2017, a full four+ years later after purchasing.

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7

tap at JK O’Donnells, FW. Totally insane barley wine. the wonder is how drinkable it is at 17+%. hard to drink more than 5-6oz, but super good

Dark black bod sml tan head. Roast choc molasses toffee arma. Roast molasses, ash, coffee, fruit flav. Full bod mod low carb. 7/5/7/3/15 3.7

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 4

Light straw and lots of nothing like a nihilish dream. Golden pour with ok head. Crisp finish. Tap at beer festival.

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7

Draught @ Malt and Mold. Slightly dark cloudy amber with off-white foamy head, light citrus and caramel malt aroma, low carbonation, medium bitter caramel malt taste with some citrus flavor, smooth body, medium bitter finish. Well covered alcohol content, a bit on the bitter side though.