Johan The Barleywine (Bourbon Barrel Aged)
Sun King Brewing Company

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From:
Sun King Brewing Company
 
Indiana, United States
Style:
English Barleywine
Ranked #81
ABV:
10%
Score:
92
Ranked #5,001
Avg:
4.24 | pDev: 10.61%
Reviews:
5
Ratings:
21
Status:
Active
Rated:
Sep 06, 2022
Added:
Jul 13, 2012
Wants:
  14
Gots:
  2
This beer uses Johan the English Style Barleywine as its base beer and is aged for 9 months in a Buffalo Trace bourbon barrel.
Recent ratings and reviews. | Log in to view more ratings + sorting options.
 
Rated: 3.81 by Chuckdiesel24 from Illinois

Sep 06, 2022
 
Rated: 4.31 by mdaschaf from Indiana

Jan 01, 2022
 
Rated: 4.14 by Dope from Massachusetts

May 26, 2021
Photo of BEERchitect
Reviewed by BEERchitect from Kentucky

4.27/5  rDev +0.7%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25
Pulling out what's best about Barleywine, Sun King brewers turn to bourbon barrel aging for the promise of added caramel, vanilla, nuttiness, oak and nuanced savory aged flavors that bring Johan to life.

Johan The Barleywine kicks off with a crimson and garnet brown hue and a dainty creme of a crown. As a rich aroma of spice cake fills the nose, it does so with a toasted and canndied nuttiness with a whisky soaked dark fruit, nearly winey edge. Deliciously sweet at the onset, the malts leap right out with brown sugar, sorghum, toffee and praline.

As the beers flavors unfold on the middle palate, the sweetness becomes saturating with booze-laden syrups. A strong fruti contingency reveals the character of fig, date, prune and plum. Red grape and a tingle of spice suggests something of port wine and sherry before a toasted, weatered oak and leather finish from the barrel. A mild hop balance links up with barrel tannins for a peppery bite to close.

Full bodied and lavishly sweet, the Barleywine is pleasantly cloying and rounded in a celebration of high malt character. Finishing spice-sweet, the beer extends with a long and sweet aftertaste to the delight of the sweet tooth.
Mar 01, 2021
Photo of robwestcott
Reviewed by robwestcott from Indiana

4.63/5  rDev +9.2%
look: 4 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5
poured from the can to a sun king teku, roughly four years after grabbing one of 400 cans released at the brewery... a deep, dark, viscous mahogany brown with a thin hint of a mocha rim hugging the inside of the glass.

aroma is, as expected, huge, sweet brown sugar and molasses, perhaps also dark toffee in the way way back.

carb has held up just fine, and the seal was set only after the beer had reached the tip top of he can's twist top, so if there's oxidation after 4 years, it's crazy minimal and entirely undetectable. super sweet, big bodied barleywine, smooth and slick, yet not at all syrupy. molasses, figs and dark raisins, dark candied brown sugar, a great big malty treat.

the barrel is present, but not overpowering, very nice balance. and that's a balance between the sweet and the bourbon, because that's what we're dealing with here. big sweet and fairly big bourbon.

this one's been waiting a long while to be enjoyed and and enjoyment it is.

two thumbs up and looking very much forward to my last remaining can of johan, though it'll be opened side by side with the upcoming batch.

cheers to sun king.
Apr 24, 2016
 
Rated: 4.26 by Abbbp from Texas

Apr 19, 2015
 
Rated: 4.23 by WTKeene from New Mexico

Apr 18, 2015
 
Rated: 4 by Kyrojack from Indiana

Oct 03, 2014
 
Rated: 4.25 by aasher from Indiana

Apr 28, 2014
 
Rated: 5 by BSuter from Indiana

Feb 17, 2014
 
Rated: 4.5 by jeremiahoden from Indiana

Oct 28, 2013
 
Rated: 4.75 by smithj2154 from California

Oct 04, 2013
 
Rated: 3.25 by spycow from Illinois

May 02, 2013
 
Rated: 4.75 by tsauce2 from Indiana

Apr 12, 2013
 
Rated: 4.5 by jaminjohnson from Canada (YT)

Apr 07, 2013
 
Rated: 4.75 by MSandahl23 from Indiana

Mar 06, 2013
Photo of TotallyHosed
Reviewed by TotallyHosed from Illinois

4.04/5  rDev -4.7%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4
The color is a dark brown leather. The color makes me think of raisins and Dr. Pepper. Very little head formed as this was poured. The look almost resembles red wine, due to an almost complete lack of carbonation.

Smell is mostly warming alcohol supported by oak, leather, figs and vanilla.

Flavor is incredibly smooth. I cannot detect the alcohol that I found in the nose. Lots of thick vanilla with some oak support. Some toasted grain lingers.

The feel is medium to thick. No carbonation is felt.

Overall, I'm very impressed by the flavor. The nose indicated a very boozy brew, but this is not the case. At the same time, the flavor far exceeds the nose. The nose is too much like a spirit than a brew. It is complex, yet dominated by the barrel notes.
Feb 22, 2013
 
Rated: 3.75 by Boilerfood from Indiana

Feb 18, 2013
Photo of mynie
Reviewed by mynie from Maryland

4.59/5  rDev +8.3%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5
Problem One:
I am a hoarder of beer and of sadness. There’s a bottle of ‘08 Darkness in my cellar that will never be opened and never be sold. Upon my death, I will bequeath to it my child only if that child can be trusted to never open or sell it but will instead bequeath it to his own child. Otherwise I will be buried with it, and before burial the lip of the bottle will be coated in ricin so as to deter the intentions of graverobbing whores.

Why? It’s a double bind, see. I don’t want to sell it because only jerks sell rare beer. I don’t want to trade it because I won’t get what it would be worth in a sale. And I don’t want to drink it because, well, it’s worth too much and what kind of ostentatious jerk would drink a beer that’s worth that much.

Problem Two:
Sun King is the second best brewery in Indiana. Their yeastmanship is unparalleled anywhere else in the Midwest—even at the Floyds. They are rightfully revered among locals. But they don’t get the kind of hype they deserve because they have small area of distribution, they don’t price gouge, and they don’t do any big events wherein people pay far too much for a semi-rare stout.

Solution?:
This is a case where two problems negate one another. Because this is an exceedingly rare beer—only about 400 pint-sized aluminum cans were made. The brewery did a thing where you could reserve a can online and all 125 reservations were gone in about 30 seconds.
But who knows about them? Drunken twenty and thirty-somethings in central Indiana. We don’t got clout.

But… is a beer a whale if there’s no Ahab out after it? Can something taste transgressive if there was never any basis for making it forbidden? How much of enjoyment is personal, localized fully within oneself, and not dependent on knowing that you get to have something someone else wants?
I can’t answer any of those questions. I can say, however, that this is really fucking good.

Full review: http://mynie.com/?p=254
Feb 08, 2013
 
Rated: 3.25 by Twal from Colorado

Jan 19, 2013
Johan The Barleywine (Bourbon Barrel Aged) from Sun King Brewing Company
Beer rating: 92 out of 100 with 21 ratings