Brewers Reserve Barley Wine Style Ale
Old Schoolhouse Brewery

Opaque reddish orange. Nice thin, but dense creamy tan head.

Taste and smell is sweet, dense, and boozy with caramel malts. Plenty of bitterness to balance it and piney, citrusy hops.

We don't see enough of these bold, hoppy, big and aggressive American barleywines. Well done. Wish I had bought two bottles.

 

Clear reddish brown body, cream cap and thick beautiful lacing. Caramel, toffee, booze, barley, and earth in that order of intensity make up the aromas. Taste add apricot and hints of prune, goes with caramel well, booze is a tick too strong for me to truly savor the sip well, barley is muted. Feel is marked by the hot booze and heavy malt, decently thick, makes me wonder about the mash time, finishes sneaky dry though.

I think this is this years vintage, though I'm not finding a bottle code, so I could be misremembering when I picked it up.
Refined looking brown body that is reminiscent of old leather or dull brown rust. Small woody head that turns easily into a ring around the glass and a wisp of galaxy. Minimal lacing, but what is there is more than I expected.

Nose give a mildly green impression with some almost grape element as well as candy cinnamon type spice. That sounds more all over the place than it really is, but there is some elements here that raise an eyebrow. This is all still within the classic notes of caramel and leather and the like.

Flavour gives a little more definition to some of the questions raised on the nose. Green spicy tobacco and big hops offer the explanation for the first couple notes listed above and build to remind the drinker to keep this to sips at a time. Taken at that pace, the heavy hand of the hops is still prominent, but the tobacco spice simmers down a touch, while boozy raisins and toffee and candied figs are allowed to emerge across an earthy substrate. The big bitter hops are still dominant, however, and the alcohol definitely comes through.


The body is decadently velvety smoothe and thick without ever really being chewy. The body is incredible, but the hopping is intense enough to detract at this point as the finish is crushing earthy bitter pine, and the alcohol is still harsh without really being hot.

There are a lot of elements to really like in here, and I believe that with some age to mellow out some of the more extreme characteristics, this one could mature into incredible territory. I suspect that it may be one of those that takes even more time in the cellar though than 'normal' to really start to shine, and I am willing to perform the necessary experiments to confirm or deny my theory.
For science, of course.

 

 

 

On tap at the brewery, on July 31. This is a caramel barleywine, very much on the sweet side. It's slightly bitter, but not very hoppy. It's just not as complex as I prefer in barleywines.

The beer I had was labelled simply "Barleywine". It's not clear whether this is a different formulation from the "Brewers Reserve Barleywine Style Ale" of this BA listing, but I didn't think it was worth it to add a new beer, so I'm just putting my rating under the old heading. The ABV was 11.5%.

This bottle from Winter 2017/18, opened in June, so about 6 months old. Pours a ruby opaque, slightly muddy hue with no head. Slight alcohol lacing.

Aroma is of sweet, boiled plums.

Taste has first malt, then dark fruit. And yes, per the claims, sea salt. Unexpected but works against the maltiness.

Through the middle, sticky peach, melted toffee, damp earth, flavors I don't get in the aroma, and a booziness that is nevertheless not "hot." No stringency, but I keep thinking of boiled raisins. I would guess this needs another 6 months on it to balance properly into now. The big flavors are fighting with each other here a little.

1/30/19: Update: I opened a 2nd bottle, also from Winter 2017/18, 6 months after the previous bottle, and aged 1 year now. As expected, flavors have balanced out more. Still sticky, earthy, but booziness is much better hidden. More caramel and toffee, less raisin.

Also, no head at all, very slight aroma and feels thin. I'd bump up my rating from 3.75 taste to 4.0 here but also feel might be down from 4.0 to 3.75. Not quite the desserty sipper it promises to be.

This version comes in at 12.0% ABV

Deep reddish copper body; thick, creamy head. Heavy aroma of whole grain cracker and biscuit; roasted grains. Deep caramel sweetness; dried pitted fruit; very boozy. Heavy body; smooth and chewy; lots of residual sugar sweetness with a big alcohol dryness to counterbalance things.

This particular offering certainly marks itself as a heavy-duty barleywine. Deep, rich malt notes with a trace of dried apricot and fig, all wrapped up with a big boozy presence.

 

 

Poured into a Fremont small snifter. Pours a very hazy, almost cloudy, orange brown with a thin off-white head that dissipates to patches, leaving slight lacing. Aroma of caramel malt, fresh and dried dark fruit, mild oxidation; qualities of fortified wine. Reminiscent of an English barleywine. Flavor is also more similar to an English style barleywine with rich caramel malt, toffee, dried dark fruit, particularly dates; port wine qualities without any of the oakiness of a port. Lightly oxidized hop bitterness in the finish. Medium bodied with light creaminess and light carbonation. Flavor leans towards a dry English barleywine, almost like an old old ale / barleywine hybrid. Unfortunately, I did not try this fresh and found this bottle, (probably 2-3 year old) bottle. It was in my cellar, but not in my database, so I don't know how long it has been there. The mild oxidation suggests at least a few years of this age on the bottle. This has aged very nicely, with great malty character and good dark dried fruit flavors. I can tell that this was well hopped, but the hops have faded at this point, only leaving a moderate bitterness at the very end of the finish. I will start putting a bottle of this away every year, I think I would have enjoyed it fresh and certainly think it has aged well. Exactly what I hope for in an aged barleywine. A excellent evening sipper.