Strong Golden Barley Wine
Samuel Smith Old Brewery (Tadcaster)

Small 2004 bottle from Neepsandtatties at share. Ruddy copper colored pour, a few bubbles. Aroma is malty, oxidized. Taste is malty, sweet, light fruity notes, woody. Past it's prime but drinks le.

 

 

 

 

Best before date is Jan 2010.

Pours a nice golden russet with a small amount of wispy white on top. Smells of dates and candy sugar, with a hint of citrus zest. Taste is a mix of vanilla, bread, candy sugar and dates, with a very faint hop bitterness that is more like lemon curd. Taste sort of falls off in the overall mouth feel, like it gets thin at the end. A nice tick, but overall nothing too spectacular.

Cute 180ml bottle. 2010
Found in the small beer/wine section of the small convenience store next to our hotel in County Hall, Westminster.
Served in a globe-shaped glass.
It pours an oily golden color with a thin white head along with small specks of lacing.
A fumy Triple Sec-like aroma blasts out of the glass at first pour. Sweet doughy malt smells follow close behind. Wonderful fruit and citrus notes play nicely off the maltiness. A light smell of peppery spice floats in late.
The flavors mirror the aromas very closely. Add a taste of toffee and a somewhat harsh vodka-like warming alcohol taste in the breath.
The mouthfeel is a little syrupy, but that was to be expected.
I wanted to find another bottle the next night, but I guess I got the last one. I do count my blessings though for having stumbled upon a rare find.

Popped open a small, 2-year-old bottle I picked up in London. The clear gold beer had a short white head and light lacing. It held a big, soft honey and lavender taste with touches of bread and candy syrup. This maybe my favorite golden barleywine. The hops are nowhere to been seen or tasted, but the malts are luscious.

Bottle dated 2004.
Pours a hazy brown/light mahogany. No head and very little carbonation.

Aroma is nice, lots of light raisins, caramels, sweet malt and toffee. Some light fruitiness. Well rounded and inviting. No hops aromas and no detectable alcohols.

Flavor follows the nose for the most part but is a bit mild and lacks depth. Lots of nice toffee and malt notes. There is some hot alcohol on the finish and the flavors on the finish are lacking a bit.

Mouthfeel is not as viscous as expected, but is pleasant.

Overall I prefer J.W. Lees Harvest ale or Thomas Hardys, they both have more complexity and depth.

Purchased off Toronado's bottle list. 180ml bottle with a July '09 "expiration date." Poured into a tasting glass.

A-Pours an appetizing cider-esque amber color with a thin ring of tiny white bubbles.

S-Musty, with aromas of apple and baking spices.

T/M-A pretty straightforward English Barleywine. You'd never know it was 10.2%ABV. Malty and sweet with a pleasant musty sweetness. The finish is buttery and a bit slick, with minimal carbonation.

D-Happy to finally try this one. It's solid, but nothing amazing. Will try it again in a year.

Quaint 180ml Bottle. Poured into wine glass.

Pours a clear amber. Minimal head. Good lacing.

Smells of apple candy, raisins, muscovado and vegemite.

Wow! Apple candy at the start disapears quickly to more raisins, muscovado sugar, christmas dried fruits, maple syrup and some yeast. It's quite a ride. Finishes dry, with a light bitterness and some honey. Top notch, with no indication of its ABV.

Mouth feel is medium bodied, silk and slightly viscous.

Goes down like a dream. A real treat.

Tiny bottle, thanks to Rob for sharing at his tasting.

Pours a clear orange, some amber, medium sized white head forms, settles down to a thin ring and layer, some lace spots on the glass, looks alright.

Smell is nice, lots of caramel, big fruitiness, apricots, a bit of funky Stingo character but lighter, honey and treacle, musty, peaches, pretty neat, alcohol is well hidden.

Taste is similar, big caramel and fruit note, apricot, touch of alcohol, wood, honey, peaches and apricot, very malty, a bit of mustiness, pretty nice stuff, very different.

Mouthfeel is medium bodied with light to medium carbonation, pretty drinkable for the ABV. Much better than Stingo. I kinda like this if a little weird. Thanks Rob!

Teensy tiny 180ml bottle, 2008 vintage, brought by bobsy to his own barleywine tasting - thanks Rob and sorry to hog it!

Pours a crystal clear light golden honey color with almost glints of pink. Not much head.

Reminds me quite a bit of the Stingo which I had earlier, same kinda weird apple and grain combo. Hints of honey, yeasty bun dough, lemon pudding, light grassy hopping, tartness in the finish along with the faintest alcohol bite. Pretty damn smooth drinking though for over 10%, the flavors just don't seem to jive together and it reminds me of no other barleywine I've had - just odd. Not bad, just not great. Sammy Smith's standard brews seem better put together than their smaller line-up.

Appearance is very sexy indeed with cloudy golden amber leaning on chestnut

Smell is of sweet caramel and honey with some floral hops. There s also herbs and spices with some grapes and apples in the background.

The taste is of much the same but somewhat tainted by a persistent sourness in the background.

The mouthfeel is creamy yet refreshing and I could drink this all day if it weren t for the lambic style sourness

Courtesy of RB's very own madmitch76. The 6oz bottle pours crystal clear copper with gold edges and thin off white head. The aroma is full bringing up a rich combination of sweet caramel candy and dark fruity esters like dates, prunes, boysenberries and figs. Each draw ends with a touch of alcohol heat. Smells yum! The taste is very similar with a medium body ushering in rich caramel goodness mixing with dark fruity esters. It dries out a bit to midway with a touch of roasted malts and fading caramel and sweet dark fruity esters. It ends with lingering sweet caramel, prunes, dates and ripe cherries. Nice stuff.

Poured from a room temperature 180ml bottle into a snifter.

Appearance: Light reddish colour, like a whiskey. Small white head, with a lot of carbonation.

Aroma: Heavy on the alcohol, with warming malts, and hints of maple syrup. Quite fruity, possible banana, and figs.

Taste: Initially sweet in flavours, brown sugar, caramel, candy floss, molasses. This is followed by slightly grainy biscuity middle, which leads into a finish that is dominated by warming alcohol.

Mouthfeel: Heavy, oily, and warming.

Drinkability: A great barleywine, definitely up there with the like of Thomas Hardy ale, and J.E. Lees Harvest Ale. Perfectly balanced warming barleywine.

Finally, I managed to get my hands on a bottle of this difficult to find beer again. I don't know why, but the last months it was impossible to find in the Netherlands... Anyhow, to celebrate, I decided to open it. I poured the beer into a sniffer. The beer pours a bright deep copper-amber color with a small white head that disappears fast.

Smell: Wow, what a great smell, dried fruits (plum raisin fig), caramel, cookies (yeast) and warming alcohol.One of the best smelling beers I ever had. I could spend the whole evening smelling it....

Taste: very similar to the smell, sweet fruits again (plums, hints of bananas), caramel, warming alcohol (becomes a bit too strong for my taste when the beer warms up too much) and an aftertaste of nice medium-bitter malts. The bitterness and sweetness of this beer are perfectly balanced, impressive.

Mouthfeel: The beer is relatively thick, with medium carbonation. Mouthfeel is incredibly smooth.

Overall: A great beer. In knew in advance that this is one of the most traditional barley wines out there, and one can taste the long lasting history. Everything is perfectly balanced, probably optimized over time! As mentioned by another reviewer, this is no complicated mud as most other barley wines out there. This one is simple but very good. Without any doubt my favorite barley wine until now. Highly recommendable

Got introduced to this beer by a friend of mine. I first drank it in de Vlaamse Reus in Wageningen, one of the best bars in Holland for beer lovers.

After a lot of effort I managed to get my hands on a bottle. Very hard to get. Like all the Sam Smith beers this has a well refined taste. Don't expect a complex black mud. This beer is so refined that you can easily name all the flavors.

Poured into a Jopen 25 cl glass, It has a deep amber colour. Small white head that dissapears quickly, medium carbonation as I like it.

Smell is caramel, dried fruits, cookies and slightly alcoholic.

Taste is malty, toffee, again dried fruits, red fruits, some banana and pleasant alcohols.

This beer is in my top 3 of favorites. No use in tasting another beer if you just finished this one. Rich and defined. Now I just wish it was easy to pick it up.

Poured into a snifter, this unusually light barleywine shines a pleasant bronze topaz with a full, solid, and short-lived head. The boozy aroma is redolent of fruit and honey, with notes of plum wine, apricots, limoncello, lowland whisky, solvents, rum, and vanilla. Sweet yet balanced to the taste; full of butterscotch, maple, and toffee, with a surprisingly sharp hop bite adding lovely notes of pine and woody resin. The sharpness is heightened by a slap of alcohol that carries a light, warming burn; it borders on aggressive, but there is enough character in this beer that it doesn't come through as overwhelming. The mouthfeel is lush yet sparkly, fitting the sweet yet spicy flavor very well. Excellent stuff that slides down surprisingly easily even though the 10.2% alcohol is quite noticeable. A nice nightcap beer.

Thanks to Bitterbill for this one.

180ml bottle poured into a tulip.

A = Very slightly translucent honey gold with a frothy but small bone white head that recedes slowly and settles into a thin layer of foam on surface.

S = Cinnamon bun dough, honey, some floral and nutty scents.

T = Tastes of honey, cinnamon bread, light caramel toffee, almost like a spiced mead but with sharper bitterness. Very interesting flavors and a long sweet finish.

M = Medium body, stinging carbonation, good mouthcoating.

D = This is a sipper, but it is very good and I would gladly have another.