Hopkins Barley Wine
Boquébière

 

 

Pours to a beautiful ruby colored, syrupy liquid. It was very clear, but I took a lot of care avoiding the bottom. It doesn't mention wether it's bottle conditioned or not, but the bottom is definitly more cloudy. Very little head with this bottle...

The smell is overwhelmingly hoppy. With sweet caramel coming in underneath.

The columbus is definitly up front, but less than the nose suggested. It is citrus and a bit floral... fading into malty goodness. I'm having a hard time describing it exactly, but I've had some bocks that had similar sweet maltiness to them. Just when swallowed the alcool kicks in and right when you expect the taste to fade out some more complexities come up, slowly overlapping as it slowly fades out. Definitly stays with you for a long time. I can still taste it on my tongue almost an hour later.

After a few slow sips this gets dangerously drinkable... It's good that it's "only" 500ml

Overall a very enjoyable experience.

Bottle: Poured a bright cloudy amber color ale with a very large foamy head with good retention and some good lacing. Aroma of green hops and residual sugar are well combined. Taste is a mix of sweet caramel malt with light toffee notes which are more then offset by loads of green hops notes. Body is full with limited filtration and good carbonation and no apparent alcohol. Can’t say there is any brewing flaw and this is even quite enjoyable but I am more of English style barleywine kinda of guy and don’t feel like the hop punch brings any additional compelxity.