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Sugar & Spice
Martin House Brewing Company
Beer Geek Stats
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- From:
- Martin House Brewing Company
- Texas, United States
- Style:
- American Barleywine
- ABV:
- 12%
- Score:
- 88
- Avg:
- 3.95 | pDev: 12.41%
- Reviews:
- 6
- Ratings:
- Status:
- Active
- Rated:
- Sep 05, 2021
- Added:
- Dec 28, 2013
- Wants:
- 5
- Gots:
- 10
No description / notes.
Recent ratings and reviews. | Log in to view more ratings + sorting options.
Reviewed by JohnDee from Texas
4/5 rDev +1.3%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
4/5 rDev +1.3%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
Hazy dark amber with an off-white head. Spicy-sweet aroma with hints of apple, brown sugar, fig, raisin, stone fruit, cinnamon, and nutmeg. The taste is boozy, sweet, and spicy, and like the smell has hints of stone fruit, apple, and fig. Reminds me of a quad in its complexity or perhaps a whiskey. Medium bodied. Very enjoyable.
Apr 06, 2018Reviewed by Jugs_McGhee from Colorado
2.43/5 rDev -38.5%
look: 2.75 | smell: 2.25 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 2.25 | overall: 2.5
2.43/5 rDev -38.5%
look: 2.75 | smell: 2.25 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 2.25 | overall: 2.5
Impression from a can nabbed at Trader Joe's in Austin:
"Spiced American barleywine." 12% ABV. "Made in Texas by Texans" (so I guess they're either not hiring any out-of-state brewers or they're just lying to consumers for marketing purposes?). Canned 11/15/17.
Served chilled into a conical pint glass.
APPEARANCE: The head is somewhat creamy and is khaki in colour. Head retention is good for the high ABV - ~8 minutes.
Body colour is a clear amber-copper. No yeast/lees are visible within; it's obviously a filtered beer.
Appears well-carbonated. Far from unique or special, and certainly not amongst the best barleywine appearances I've encountered, but it's not a poor appearance.
AROMA: Caramel, amber malt sweetness, graham cracker, artificial sweetness (as though sugar or natura i.e. artificiall flavour was added), toffee, cardamom, cinnamon, imitation vanilla extract, barrel sugar-like sweetness, sage, and some tingly mint family herbs.
Not very appealing given its high sweetness, but at least it's not boozy. No overt off-notes are detected. Tends towards a more English yeast profile than an American one by my estimation, but apparently I'm wrong as they bill this as an American barleywine. Hop presence is mild.
TASTE: The spices lend it an overt artificiality which is off-putting coupled with its unnecessary high sweetness. It's not as boozy as its 12% ABV had me expecting, but that's probably the best thing I can say about it. It's a muddled mess of a beer lacking vivid distinct flavours and depth of flavour.
I do find some caramel and herb bouncing around as well as generic floral hop flavour. I was wrong in terms of yeast; this does tend towards an American ale yeast profile.
Nutmeg, imitation vanilla, clove, cinnamon, caradamom.
TEXTURE: Thick and sticky, flirting with syrupy. Smooth, wet, unrefreshing, heavy on the palate, and chewy. Combined with its saccharine taste, this coating mouthfeel has me mentally reminding myself to schedule a dental checkup.
OVERALL: A subpar barleywine across the board. Very forgettable fare that neither nails a classic barleywine flavour nor steers enough into the "spiced" skid to stand out in the category. I'll easily finish the can I got and its well disguised 12% ABV will prove quite the wallop, but I couldn't recommend this to either discerning or casual drinkers and I definitely wouldn't entertain the idea of purchasing it again.
*Update: I checked Martin House's website after reviewing this and discovered it's brewed with piloncillo, which helps explain that problematic sweetness it suffers from. This would undoubtedly have been better without all the unnecessary additives.
D+ (2.43) / NOT RECOMMENDED
Dec 14, 2017"Spiced American barleywine." 12% ABV. "Made in Texas by Texans" (so I guess they're either not hiring any out-of-state brewers or they're just lying to consumers for marketing purposes?). Canned 11/15/17.
Served chilled into a conical pint glass.
APPEARANCE: The head is somewhat creamy and is khaki in colour. Head retention is good for the high ABV - ~8 minutes.
Body colour is a clear amber-copper. No yeast/lees are visible within; it's obviously a filtered beer.
Appears well-carbonated. Far from unique or special, and certainly not amongst the best barleywine appearances I've encountered, but it's not a poor appearance.
AROMA: Caramel, amber malt sweetness, graham cracker, artificial sweetness (as though sugar or natura i.e. artificiall flavour was added), toffee, cardamom, cinnamon, imitation vanilla extract, barrel sugar-like sweetness, sage, and some tingly mint family herbs.
Not very appealing given its high sweetness, but at least it's not boozy. No overt off-notes are detected. Tends towards a more English yeast profile than an American one by my estimation, but apparently I'm wrong as they bill this as an American barleywine. Hop presence is mild.
TASTE: The spices lend it an overt artificiality which is off-putting coupled with its unnecessary high sweetness. It's not as boozy as its 12% ABV had me expecting, but that's probably the best thing I can say about it. It's a muddled mess of a beer lacking vivid distinct flavours and depth of flavour.
I do find some caramel and herb bouncing around as well as generic floral hop flavour. I was wrong in terms of yeast; this does tend towards an American ale yeast profile.
Nutmeg, imitation vanilla, clove, cinnamon, caradamom.
TEXTURE: Thick and sticky, flirting with syrupy. Smooth, wet, unrefreshing, heavy on the palate, and chewy. Combined with its saccharine taste, this coating mouthfeel has me mentally reminding myself to schedule a dental checkup.
OVERALL: A subpar barleywine across the board. Very forgettable fare that neither nails a classic barleywine flavour nor steers enough into the "spiced" skid to stand out in the category. I'll easily finish the can I got and its well disguised 12% ABV will prove quite the wallop, but I couldn't recommend this to either discerning or casual drinkers and I definitely wouldn't entertain the idea of purchasing it again.
*Update: I checked Martin House's website after reviewing this and discovered it's brewed with piloncillo, which helps explain that problematic sweetness it suffers from. This would undoubtedly have been better without all the unnecessary additives.
D+ (2.43) / NOT RECOMMENDED
Reviewed by kevinobryan from Texas
4.15/5 rDev +5.1%
look: 5 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 5 | overall: 4.25
4.15/5 rDev +5.1%
look: 5 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 5 | overall: 4.25
Great dark amber color. The initial sip packs an extremely sweet punch for me, as I'm not a big fan of sweetness. However, it's not a lingering sweetness. Has a great aftertaste. I can space the time between sips and this is a very drinkable beer for me. Awesome winter beer with the spices.
Feb 01, 2017
Sugar & Spice from Martin House Brewing Company
Beer rating:
88 out of
100 with
51 ratings
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