Mother In Law's Tongue Tied
Bartrams Brewery

Purchased at the OnlyFineBeer shop, Chelmsford. Coming in a long-neck, slim 275ml brown bottle, bottle-conditioned. The back label describes in detail the story behind the old lady that this beer is brewed to commemorate (the mother-in-law of the Bartrams brewery's head-brewer?). BB July 2007, Batch No. BE 200705, served cool in a large Burgundy bulb wine glass.

A: bright copperish hue, slightly hazy; the beer head comes hissing and very restrained even after a force-pour; slowly dissipating to just a rimmed foam; extremely faint carbonation. Looking quite normal for a bottled English barley wine actually~~
S: a profound syrupy and slightly caramely maltiness combines with a slightly sour-sweet edge of perfumy fruits upfront, almost like Barley Wine mixed with farm-house saison--apple-ish perfume, peach-flavouring, sugar-cane juice, late-harvest sweet white wine, lively ripe lychees, and full-flavoured flowery hoppyness at the same time... the aroma never settles, rather it's fragrant, perfumy, and in a strange way softens as well as complements with the thick maltiness upfront. A thick, slightly oily hoppy backbone is particulary welcomed.
T: a slightly rough taste of dirty kitchen cloth, stinky hays, semi-fermented pears, stale-sour yeasty edge of "bier de garde", and a mild flavour of tea-smoked prunes approach the front of the palate all at once but quite gently, not in full force, and covering all elements possibly sensed by tastebuds (salty, sour, sweet, and bitter); gradually, the mouthfeel turns slightly more chewy, tangy, and tea-ish towards the finish, without not much lingering flavour though.
M&D: with almost no alc. detected on the palate, this beer tastes much smoother and lighter than the alc. content suggests, but it's not boring, as the finishing mouthfeel, like dried citrus-zest bitter and tangy edges, keeps the overall flavour profile lively and evolving. Somehow Bartrams' distinctive rough yeastiness as well as the international blend of hops (Galena, Tettnang, Hallertau)have lent an intriguing twist to this beer's flavour and aroma, making it not so much of a barley wine than a distictive hybrid across given borders. Well worth a try!