Heavy Lifting Bourbon Barrel Aged Barleywine
Goose Island Beer Co.

Bottle: Poured a deep copper color ale with a medium size off-white foamy head with good retention and some lacing. Aroma of bourbon and vanilla notes with some woody notes of dry caramelized malt notes. Taste is a great mix of strong bourbon notes with some vanilla notes with some dry caramelized malt notes with some woody notes also noticeable. Body is about average for style with good carbonation. Solid barleywine with nice barrel-aging notes.

 

This is the first time I am having barleywine. To be fair, it's also bourbon barrel aged, which is how I like my stouts. So here I go.
Pours much lighter than I thought it would pour. More of a dark copper/mahogany. Looks like very dirty water. A head appears, only to go by the wayside. The nose is nothing but whiskey, perhaps some pecan. The taste is completely unexpected and not in a great way. Bourbon, maybe walnut. Very boozy aftertaste.
I am not sure if the taste here is because of the bourbon treatment or because this is what barley wine tastes like. I guess I will give barley wines one more try without the bourbon and see what happens.
This didn't work for me.