American Barley Wine
Kuhnhenn Brewing Company

Poured from a 12oz bottle (2023 vintage) into a Levante Brewing snifter. Pours a dark copper color out of the bottle but settles in the glass a syrupy, dark brown with a tiny sliver of dark khaki colored foam head that quickly dissipates into nothing. Good looking barleywine. Toffee, nougat, caramel and some piney, almost minty hops on the nose. Taste is similar. It starts out really great with a slightly sweet toffee flavor with the resinous, herbal hops in the finish. As it warms, the hops and malts meld into prunes on the nose and in the taste. Slightly sweet. Kind of dry with a medium-full mouthfeel. More than decent American barleywine.

 

Opaque brown body, very slightly lighter brown ring. Smell has the big barley snarl with big caramel, molasses, dark fruit and booze. Taste is an old-school barley wine in most ways except that it has a sweet plum and molasses like edge to it pretty powerfully. The result is really nice! Feel is dry, barley snarl is there but has to break through quite a bit of maltwork. Feels like a barleywine from earlier in the evolution we have seen, nice

2018 vintage, enjoyed on 12/14/2021

 

 

2010 bottle. 10 year old barleywine, i don't know what to expect here.

This one pours a deep dark reddish brown color, with a very small head, and no lacing.

This smells like sherry, dark fruit, caramel, maple, toffee, and cardboard-ish oxidation.

This has definitely seen better days - those better days might have been five years ago - but there's still some enjoyment factor to be found here. The oxidation is less cardboard and more old fruitiness - sherry, cherry, dark fruit, etc. The base barleywine still comes through with some caramel and toffee, and there's a touch of citrusy hop character still left somehow, even 10 years later.

This is light bodied, with basically no carbonation left. It's a very slow sipper by all accounts.

I would not suggest aging this beer for this long - 5 years is probably closer to the line. But I'm still happy to have tried this one anyway.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

12oz bottle poured into a snifter. 2010 vintage
(A)- Pours a deep sherry-like brown amber color. Some minimal froth
(S)- Rich, leathery toffee and caramel meets an ever so slight sign of oxidation starting
(T)- Similar to the smell. Quite sweet with toffee and caramel. The finish disappears and drops off flat in flavor
(M)- Very low carbonation level; not flat but close. Quite smooth for 11.5% but also quite sweet and has a thin middle and finish to it. It just kind of falls off the palate
(O)- Nicely smooth but the flavor falls off really quick. What is there are some really nice barleywine flavors though

Barleywines aren't really my style, though this one is pretty good. Smells like alcohol and prune juice. Feel is barely carbonated, fairly heavy. Taste is heavy on the barley and alcohol. This is the 2010 release that's been aging since. Good but not outstanding.