Family Reunion Coppertail
Cigar City Brewing

Picked up a 500 ml bottle from the Cigar City brewpub in Tampa on 1-30-24 for $18.99. Bottled i think in November 2023, consumed 6-26-25.

Beer poured dark brown with a nice tan head with the original pour that dissipated pretty quickly.

Nose is very nice as i am getting notes of toffee, dark fruit, vanilla, and boozy rum.

Taste is a large malt base that gives a toffee baseline with some dark fruit in post sip aspirations. Barrel brings a touch of vanilla and a rum alcohol warmth. Finishes balanced from the hopping and the barrel.

Mouthfeel is medium bodied but lacks viscosity or smoothness in some of the better BA ABW's i have had in the past.

Overall, nothing spectacular. Was worthy of a shot given BA Barleywines are hard to find in the wild.

 

From a 500ml bottle, released in November 2023. Served in a tulip.

Pours a thin-appearing cola-black with a scant quarter-finger of fizzy head. Retention is effectively nil, leaving nothing but a thin margin and a super-slippery spattering of feeble lacing.

Nose is heavy and roasty. Aromas of malt syrup and molasses.

Taste is dense, dark and heavily malty. Taste is predominantly - almost exclusively? - dark molasses. Some rum character, I guess, but less barrel-like than like a molasses cocktail if there were such a thing, god forbid.

Feel is surprisingly soft and light in defiance of the heavy taste. Smooth, medium-plus bodied and well carbonated relative to the style. But hot and boozy af.

‘Molasses’ pretty much sums it up. Dark roasty malt syrupy, whatever rum barrel character may be intended is muddled up in molasses and boozy heat.

Poured a blackish body with almost no head or lace. Boozy aroma that seems mostly of figs and raisins. Smooth yet heavy bodied, boozy, raisins, figs and pronounced prunes come through in this bittersweet barleywine that is alright to drink.