Trainwreck Barley Wine
Phillips Brewing & Malting Co.

Trainwreck Barley WineTrainwreck Barley Wine
Beer Geek Stats | Print Shelf Talker
From:
Phillips Brewing & Malting Co.
 
British Columbia, Canada
Style:
American Barleywine
Ranked #149
ABV:
10%
Score:
87
Ranked #15,532
Avg:
3.9 | pDev: 10%
Reviews:
24
Ratings:
54
Status:
Active
Rated:
Jun 15, 2023
Added:
Dec 06, 2010
Wants:
  4
Gots:
  7
On the ale side of the yeast divide, this year’s barley wine, Trainwreck, is set to derail your holidays in the best way possible. Providing a boxcar of big malts and rich, caramel aromas, Trainwreck will run you around the corner on two wheels. Available for a limited time, so don't miss the train.
Recent ratings and reviews. | Log in to view more ratings + sorting options.
Ratings by Erik-P:
Photo of Erik-P
Rated by Erik-P from Canada (BC)

3.75/5  rDev -3.8%

Jul 11, 2014
More User Ratings:
Photo of Beersnake
Reviewed by Beersnake from California

4.22/5  rDev +8.2%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
Poured at fridge temp. Pours a murky orange with a thin layer of off-white head. The nose is great - rich toffee, apricots, raisins, and a nice earthy note. The taste largely follows the nose. Toffee, leather, a floral note, earth, wood, citrus peel, and tons of malts. The mouthfeel is medium bodied and has a nice toffee aftertaste. Great beer.
Jun 15, 2023
Photo of LampertLand
Reviewed by LampertLand from Canada (BC)

3.84/5  rDev -1.5%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
Phillips Brewing 'Trainwreck' Barley Wine @ 10.0% , first sampled from a squealer & a 650 ml bottle 2016 vintage , also from a recent 473 ml can 2022 vintage
A-pour is amber from the squealer/bottle/can to a dark amber in the glass with a small off-white head leaving a fine spotty lace along the snifter/tulip
S-oak , caramel malt
T-big warming barley wine , lots of caramel malt at the swallow/finish
MF-decent carbonation , full bodied , warming
Ov-glad I bought a couple to age , as this beer needs some time to mature/get better
prost LampertLand
2016 vintage fresh , caramel stands out
2016 vintage + 1year , the caramel has mellowed a bit , so has the oak , still enjoyable
2022 vintage fresh , this beer will need to be cellared , to get better , from very good to outstanding possibly
2022 vintage + 1 year , time will tell
Dec 13, 2016
 
Rated: 3.75 by Howlader from Canada (AB)

Nov 26, 2016
Photo of JonCorbett
Reviewed by JonCorbett from Canada (BC)

4.04/5  rDev +3.6%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
The brand new 2016 Vintage... couldn't wait to try it.

Appearance: Dark and rusty red oxide like the body on a 1949 Ford pickup truck that has spent the past half century alone and forgotten beside a 2 century old oak tree in the back 40 of a farmer's field in Perry, Alabama. The head is an average finger of sun-faded white, loose, and craggly with an medium-slow dissipation and the constant and deep that leaves a finely knitted mesh of lace during the swirl, but settles back down onto the surface.

Aromas: Good sturdy oak logs that have been freshly chopped (probably from the big oak tree that was camouflaging the Ford). Some sweet caramel malts, but plenty of fruit vinuous tang as well. The Ford engine that is the 10% is completely missing.

Taste: I think the oak is the shop head here - slapping around the junior mechanics - Malt and Hop - keeping them in line and working together, they like to horse around, giving each other a few friendly jabs of coffee or dark cacao. And Ms. Yeast, the shop's receptionist, drops by in the middle of the work day to drop off some freshly baked and slightly toasted bread. Very delightful.

Palate: The body is still fairly sturdy, though I found a few spots where it's shell had thinned a bit. But the wheels of carbonation have not seized up at all, retaining plenty of fine and smooth effervescence. And once the ol' bitty starts to be roll out of the pasture, there is very nice warming feel, as the sun finally breaks the shade of woody oak to warm up the back of the palate and throat.

Overall: Aesthetically I loved it (can you tell?), though because I had to try it right away I do want to compare what it will taste like in 2 or 3 years. So I hope I will remember this, the next time around - that it was really great, but you can tell as well that it could still use a few more years of maturing.

Pairing: I like barley wines because they are easier to pair sometimes just because of their wine-like demure. So I think just a cheese-focused hors d'oeuvres platter is the way to go with Trainwreck this year.
Nov 06, 2016
Photo of Shakyamunibrewda
Rated by Shakyamunibrewda from Canada (AB)

4.83/5  rDev +23.8%
look: 4.75 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.75
Beautiful american style barleywine, drank after one year of ageing so the hops were more subdued and allowed the malts and other features to shine.
Oct 02, 2016
 
Rated: 5 by MilkLeg from Canada (AB)

Feb 19, 2016
 
Rated: 4.12 by likeablepaper from Canada (AB)

Dec 14, 2015
 
Rated: 4.24 by adhallick from Canada (MB)

Dec 12, 2015
Photo of RBryn
Rated by RBryn from Canada (BC)

3.91/5  rDev +0.3%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4
My first Barley Wine ... darn, the local pub stopped carrying it!
Apr 14, 2015
 
Rated: 4.04 by jmdr from Canada (AB)

Mar 09, 2015
 
Rated: 3.75 by liamt07 from Canada (ON)

Mar 01, 2015
 
Rated: 3.83 by Tivlavrie from Canada (AB)

Dec 25, 2014
Photo of Svingjo
Reviewed by Svingjo from Canada (BC)

3.98/5  rDev +2.1%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4
This poured a nice dark reddish brown with a head that stuck around and laced the glass well. The nose was a sweet caramel, with some dried fruit and malt. Taste leaned towards a sweet brown sugar, molasses with dates and figs coming to the forefront, like a nice plum pudding. There was a hint of chocolate and vanilla as well. It was lightly carbonated and the 10% ABV was pretty well hidden.
Dec 22, 2014
Photo of CalgaryFMC
Reviewed by CalgaryFMC from Canada (AB)

3.91/5  rDev +0.3%
650 ml (2013 vintage) poured into a snifter over the course of an evening's paperwork (quality may suffer). A dark reddish mahogany with three or four fingers of foamy, creamy beige head. Some mucous-like coagulated proteins floating around. Oh well. Aroma is richly sweet, caramel, mixed fruits, nuts, and a decent dose of citrus and pine hops. Whoa. Taste evokes boozy raisins and dates, whiskey, coconut, toffee, peanuts, almond extract, peaches, maraschino cherries, cinnamon ... A given sip morphs from these sweeter flavors, including a little chocolate, to end dry, floral, and woody. Carbonation is quite mellow as advertized, with a fairly thick body even as the beer nevertheless remains quite smooth and drinkable. Some apple skin and flesh shows up late. Has the requisite American barleywine hoppiness, with some grapefruit, peach, and red berry notes floating above the candy bar sweet malts and some resin in the finish. NOT a super hot example of the style, my belly is warm but I taste minimal booze. I also cellared this bottle for almost seven months. Wonderfully balanced barleywine if on the mellow side.
Sep 13, 2014
 
Rated: 3.75 by Larz_73 from Canada (BC)

Jul 04, 2014
 
Rated: 4.43 by ZachT from Canada (BC)

Feb 09, 2014
 
Rated: 3.75 by YamagamiTravis from Canada (BC)

Jan 01, 2014
Photo of Voonder
Reviewed by Voonder from Canada (AB)

4.09/5  rDev +4.9%
look: 4.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25
650 ml bottle
2013

A - very dark brown with copper notes. foamy thick tan head, very beautiful, dissipates slowly lots of lace.

S - sweet, yeasty, earthy. some dark fruit flavours (raisins, plum). alcohol isn't evident. good solid nose.

T - very balanced, starts very sweet, almost chocolaty, a lot of sweet malts, chocolate and some caramel. nicely followed by bitters notes, plums and raisins present all the way through. Alcohol is perfectly hidden within this very flavourful beer.

M - carbonation is on the spot, beer is very smooth and balanced.

O - well, I enjoyed it very much. did not have high expectations and really it was very good. Not as yeasty as I would expect from barley wine, I would even say milder than an average barley wine, but very well balanced, smooth, very drinkable for ABV. Definitely having this again - winters in Calgary are cold and long, so probably on more than one occasion. Great job Phillips!
Dec 27, 2013
 
Rated: 3.75 by Derek from Canada (BC)

Dec 16, 2013
Trainwreck Barley Wine from Phillips Brewing & Malting Co.
Beer rating: 87 out of 100 with 54 ratings