Barley Wine Tullibardine Cask Finish
The Grizzly Paw Brewing Company

Appearance - Pours a dark chestnut brown with a finger of cream coloured head.

Smell - dark fruits (plum, cherry, and fig), red wine aromas, caramel, vanilla, hint of oak, and hint of earthy hops.

Taste - dark fruits (plum, cherry, and fig) and red wine aromas dominate the brew. The caramel has a subtle presence. The vanilla, hint of oak, and earthy hops are lost in translation.

Mouthfeel - Light to medium bodied with light carbonation. Finishes with a lingering sweetness from the red wine aromas and dark fruits.

Overall - A lackluster "sour" barley wine that misses the mark on the scotch barrel aspect. I get more red wine aromas than anything. This needs to go back to the drawing board to make it a true winner in this style.

This one took a call to the brewery to confirm that it should actually be labeled a sour barley wine. Trying to objectively review based on that style. Pours a hazy brown colour, thin layer of head with little retention and no lacing. Nose is tart with hints of oak and scotch. Tart flavors dominate, toffee, raisins and sour grapes linger on the finish. An interesting style and a memorable experience.

341ml bottle, their apparently unreleased (on its own merits) barley wine, aged in a 1993 Tullibardine Scotch Cask.

This beer pours a somewhat hazy, dark red-brick amber colour, with one skinny finger of thinly foamy, and mostly bubbly tan head, which leaves a tiny bit of broken berm lace around the glass as things slowly sink away.

It smells of sharp fusel alcohol infused with indistinct dark orchard fruit, musty caramel malt, understated biscuity toffee, subtle whisky barrel notes - grainy wood, vanilla, a wisp of smoke - and a bit of dank, weedy hoppiness. The taste is grainy caramel malt, musty under the stairs storage space (that may or may not include forgotten fruit preserves), ethereal hard treacle, a still weak whisky barrel essence, one hardly worth dissecting, and tame citrusy, leafy, and earthy hops.

The bubbles are pretty low-key, barely a noticeable burble arising neither here nor there, the body a so-so middleweight, and generally smooth, the barrel astringencies only making a minor dent as such. It finishes off-dry, the lingering caramel/toffee malt squeezing out the fading woody notes.

A decent enough little brother to the real barrel-aged, American-style barley wines of the world - at 7% ABV, this one doesn't have to try all that hard to keep it under wraps. However, it seems now that I peruse the label a little more carefully, that they might have blended this with a brown ale, so well, there's that, then.