Endless Ending
Anchorage Brewing Company

absurd bottle here, people freaked out about this when it came out, thought i had missed it, homie shared it last night out of left field, amazing generosity, so good to have beer friends! this is a cool blend, i feel like in my experience with stout and barleywine together, the stout always takes over, but this is so unique to me because it seems to be more barleywine forward, sweet and long boiled and malty with the roast and the body of the stout accenting it rather than trampling it, really nice ratio, whatever it is, and all the oak is very unifying, a couple of all time beers put together for this, very cool, and super heady art, sexy with the white wax, these guys just rule. very dark in the glass but not quite black, super viscous texture, even syrupy, with more head than anticipated, cool to have some life to it, keeps is moving, but barely. the aroma on this is awesome, tons of oak, bourbon, barrel char, and a lot of long boiled malt richness from the barleywine element, nuances of graham cracker, chestnut, english toffee, cognac, and red apple, and then the stout which hints at hazelnut, chocolate syrup, and black coffee, a charcoal thing in the mix, some brown sugar sweetness, a lot of vanilla character from the oak, and enough alcohol to let me know this is a monster, warm the whole way. impressively dynamic in the flavor, through the obvious booze and sweetness, its a lot of earthy grain, even a spicy rye type note to it, which im not even sure is in this barleywine, but it presents like that to me, time has smoothed this out a lot too i suspect, milk and dark chocolate, light smoke, good whiskey, faint raisin, peat, and maple, just a hint of oxidation, not unflattering in this style. its palate coating, all over my teeth, and feels thick and slick going down. great complexity to this, i love that the barleywine is still the lead dog here, way cool. really fun brew, sick to get to share it with friends like i did, and to be included in such a bottle. anchorage is one of the kings of this sort of thing, and this was every bit as special as anticipated!

A thousand thanks to snaotheus for this phenomenal gem.
Pours with a darkness straight out of the abyss. Deep and glossy like a black mahogany guitar. Cocoa colored head tops it off and hangs around for a spell. Nearly a finger in height at first, tapering off to a thin filmy cap. Thin lacing. Gorgeous.
Nose is generous and varied. I would be content to sniff this for hours. As anticipated, caramel, toffee, and Bourbon notes abound. But there is a lot more going on here. I pick up dates and hints of something warm and slightly fruity in it's sweetness, like Cognac or apple brandy.
Flavor is a true smorgasbord: Bourbon, toffee, slightly burnt brown sugar, and much of the flavors I pick up from a solid 20 year Tawny Port: caramel, dates, figs, and a nuanced nuttiness. But still get some of the fruitiness of a younger port. I really feel that the barleywine was assertive here and did not allow itself to be overshadowed by the imperial stout in the blend. She is sweet yet complex.
Mouthfeel is on the lighter side of chewy, almost soft in the swallow but with some gentle heat. Amazing sipper.
A glorious hour of my life.

 

A - Dark brown pour with light lacing and no carbonation.

S - Dark fruit, toasted olbrown sugar, Bourbon, light oak, and raisins.

T - Raisins, toasted brown sugar, dates, big molasses presence, Bourbon, leather, and slight warming on the way down.

M - Big body that's silky and velvety with a somewhat wet finish.

O - For such a high ABV, it's well hidden. Slight warming, but not much. Nice on the flavor profile.

 

 

 

Gorgeous beer, with decent head production and retention despite the monster ABV, blend, and barrel aging.

This aroma is on par with any barrel aged beast. A complex blend of bourbon, oak, and cognac, strong toffee and caramel, cherry, molasses, leather, bark, and the slightest touch of musty oxidation. Smells hot - but, at 15.5%, if it's not hot, then I'm broken.

Surprisingly sweet up front - in a dessert wine kind of way, with rich notes of grape and cherry standing out stronger than notes of brown sugar, toffee, and honey. Drinks like a dessert wine, with accents of barleywine and stout - instead of a blend of a barleywine and stout, if that makes sense. In other words: it's unlike anything you could have anticipated, and it's really, really damn good. Long, lip-smacking finish, with notes of vanilla, brown sugar, and tannins.

This is a big beer ... but 15.5% big? Wow, it is such an easy sipper, it's pretty unreal. This is right up there with the best big beers from The Bruery, and I'd argue possibly even better than Firestone Walker's anniversary blends.

375 mL bottle. Pours black. Smells of lots of bourbon, heavy roasted malt, alcohol. Tastes quite sweet. Bourbon, brown sugar, some dark fruits. Heavy, sweet, boozy. Missing the roasted malt that I get in the nose, but it's still tasty.

 

Bottle in trade courtesy of davidtarnow
L: black with creamy brown head.
S: Fig, brown sugar, caramel & vanilla.
T: Caramel, raisin/figs from the barleywine, with chocolate and vanilla. Brown sugar sweetness.
M: Soft mouthfeel, a little thin.
O: I heard that this was the inspiration for “For Gabe” and that intrigued me. Though I haven’t had that beer, I was definitely expecting more.
It’s a great blend, but being hyper critical it is a little too sweet and thin for my palate.
On a side note I generally haven’t loved bw/stout blends as much as fellow beer enthusiasts I know.

 

 

 

A: Pours pitch black with slight heft/thickness to it that forms a nice rich brown head.
S: Picking up notes of BA barleywine with hints of red wine, caramel and vanilla.
T: Caramel fig notes dominate from the barleywine, with hints of chocolate and vanilla...maybe a tad sweet.
M: Pleasant mouthfeel, soft/creamy with just enough thickness.
O: I have really enjoyed this release. I have a few more that I'll keep stored...see if some of the sweetness dissipates.

 

 

 

 

 

3 December 2020 - Beer #211

Price: $35.00 on Tavour

Appearance: 5 - extremely thick and black. The rest of this head is going nowhere. Lacing is bonkers.

Nose: 5 - this has been attacking my nose since I opened the bottle. Nearly all intense barrel with some sweetness.

Taste: 4 - zOMG! I'm surprised that it's more barleywine than stout given the appearance. The flavor is intense, but it's too incredibly sweet.

Mouth: 5 - super thick and chewy. I'm almost choking.

Overall: 5 - this is what I call fancy beer. It's very good but to darned sweet. What are they trying to hide behind that sweetness?

Cheers!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*Poured into a Teku glass from a 375mL bottle*

This beer poured absolutely pitch black in color with a decadent looking dark mocha brown head. The head on this was a finger thick, but it didn't have much retention to it, dissipating almost instantly leaving me with a flat pitch black liquid. To be fair, with a 15.5% ABV, I wasn't too surprised by its lack of head.

Upfront on the nose, I got big rich aromas of a nice barrel-aged barleywine presenting a unique balance between the barrel and malt characters; the aromas being notes of toffee, dark caramel, and bourbon. The back-end is where I got more characteristics of the stout, as I got nice strong notes of dark chocolate, a bit of coffee, dark cherries, and vanilla. However, the characteristics of the stouts were easily overpowered a bit by the strong aromas coming from the barleywine.

This is a very very sweet beer. I first had this at cellar temp and I was blown away by its taste and complexity, but as this warmed up more it began to taste too cloyingly sweet and a bit hard to drink. Still, the taste on this was very good and extremely complex giving me notes of bourbon upfront which was supported by big notes of toffee, caramel, medium roast coffee, dark chocolate and vanilla throughout. This beer finishes on a very sweet/bready malt taste, giving me notes of sweet chocolaty bread. It almost felt as though I was drinking liquid chocolate croissant dipped in bourbon on the finish.

As you would expect, this beer was full bodied, low in carbonation, but incredibly easy to drink for the ABV. I didn't taste any alcohol in this. Instead, it felt like I was drinking liquid candy since this beer was so freakin' sweet. Probably the sweetest beer I've ever had.

Like I said before, this beer was incredible the first half hour I was sipping on this. But eventually--as the beer warmed up and opened up in my glass--it became too cloyingly sweet for me to enjoy all of it by myself. Despite that, I thought this beer was overall a very very nice experience, which gave me super rich and complex notes from the barrel, barleywine and stout. Despite the big price tag, I would say this is definitely worth getting and sharing between you and your friends/family.

Received in a trade and shared with JLindros. Review #4200. Have been waiting on this beer for a while now and between this being a special review and the relaxation of Covid-19 restriction I felt this was a good time to pull out this bottle.

A - Poured into a Kate the Great tulip a nice dark black hue with a thin mocha head that fades quickly to leave a light halo and wisps. The legs are just spectacular here, thick and painted on. Gorgeous.

S - Aromas of an almost barbecue sauce like element. As someone who utterly loves A Deal With A Devil (especially batch 2) the blending here might have led to some clashing. The barleywine and stout tend to clash, there is some chocolate notes too along with roasty stout elements. The barleywine is pleasant too, lightly fruity. Somehow though this becomes rather barbecue sauce like...really peculiar. Lots of great spikes of aromas, but throughout the aroma that saucy element pops .

T - Taste is similar to the nose with super sweet barleywine elements. Little fruity and smooth but almost cloy level. There is some nice chocolate notes as well. Throughout the beer it is incredibly, incredibly sweet. Borders on cloy level sweetness. The taste is pleasant and the barleywine is nice but the bourbon is somewhat muted. As it warms it becomes even more sweet, which is rather unfortunate.

M - Mouthfeel is lightly carbonated, little creamy, alcohol hidden well but this is just super super sweet practically sticky sweet.

O - Overall i have mixed feelings towards this beer. The appearance was great, but, everything else is super super cloy and sweet. A Deal With A Devil itself is sweet but this is almost candy like throughout the entire beer. Really puzzling, but, I don't think sitting on this for a few years would have made this less cloy. Quite unfortunate as I had extremely high expectations for this beer.

Serving Type: Bottle

 

 

huuuge thanks to rudzud
Pours thick and dark, a smaller foamy head with lower retention, dark head, a little lacing, pitch black beer, long thick legs

Nose has way too much going on, sweet barleywine malt, caramel, toffee, etc, then some cocoa and bitter roast notes, some fruity notes, they all seem to blend to a strange BBQ sauce character, some toffee caramel characters, starts to become more barleywine like as it goes, starting to really lean into the Deal WIth the Devil, fair fruity raisin character

Taste very sweet, candy malt and toffee, caramel, sweet candy as well as some vanilla barrel, a bit of vanilla Charleston Chew candy, with a bit of dark fruit, raisin, date, etc, mild bourbon and barrel, sweet vanilla cream notes, light alcohol, thankfully no BBQ sauce but a touch of chocolate stout notes, not a ton, some bitterness with some roasted cocoa malt and a little spicy hop, a bit of tingly alcohol, big sweet caramel and toffee, quite sweet in general

Mouth is fuller bod, rich creamy thick, a little warming alcohol, med foamy carb

Overall mixed on this one, the bourbon was pretty light, but barleywine Deal with the Devil was delicious, but stout mixed in was eh, so really mixed on this one, where original Deal with the Devil was easily one of the best beers I've ever had

Blackish brown body with light brown surface islands. Aromas of oak, bourbon, barley, caramel, fig, date, dark chocolate, vanillins, candi sugar, black strap molasses, and char. Has booze and sweetness, but this is true to the strong ale style. Taste has everything from the nose plus maple, brown sugar, and slight coffee, with both stout and barleywine flavors undergirding with oak and booze. Feel is warm, thick, refined for style, and super smooth. Best strong ale besides uptopias?

 

 

Bought this on a whim because I found a great deal. Knew it would be good but holy cow what a beer! Such a great blend. Perfectly balanced. Easily one of the best beers I’ve ever had!

 

Pretty fantastic and delicious, but why waste ADWTD blending it with anything else?