Vermilion Barleywine
Perennial Artisan Ales

 

 

Pours a dark burgundy with a thin layer of khaki head on top. Head retention is okay with no lacing left behind. Aroma is caramel, toffee, and burnt sugar. Toasted, caramel, and nutted malts show through as well. Flavor profile is earthy, caramel, nutted, and toasted malts right up front. As the malts fade a touch, caramel, toffee, and burnt sugar take over giving it a sugary sweet finish. Mouth feel is creamy with just a little bit of graininess to it. It is thick. Overall, a tasty barleywine that doesn't come off as a bottle of liquid candy. It showcases its malts well, with an appreciation of sugary sweet notes.

Served in a 12oz snifter from a 750mL bottle. 2016 vintage reviewed in 2017.

 

750mL (bottled December 2014) into a tulip. Pours a deep mahogany brown with minimal carbonation, just a narrow ring of off-white foam around the rim.

Aroma is sticky-sweet and slightly fruity with notes of brown sugar, molasses, caramel, figs, and dates.

Taste follows nose. Lots of candied sugars, dried fruits, caramel, vanilla, and rum-soaked pipe tobacco.

Mouthfeel is sticky, chewy, slick. Lingers on the palate.

Overall a pretty standard approach to the classic English barleywine (which is a good thing). A very nice sipper of a dessert beer.

 

12/2012 bottling

Poured into a Teku glass.
Look: a somewhat hazy copper-brown color with a medium sized tan head. The foam settled slowly and left some nice tracks on the glass.
Aroma: brighter than expected with caramel, raisins, figs, and dark bread.
Taste: all of the above flavors were there with a richness and depth. Not overly sweet due to an assertive floral and earthy bitterness from the hops. Not as pronounced as in an American Barleywine, but enough to match the malt. The yeast seemed to lend more floral notes as well.
Feel: big as expected, but not cloying. Light carbonation appropriate for the style.
Overall: a delicious British Barleywine. It's bright flavors, bitterness, and ABV lean toward American BW, but this is outstanding. Highly recommended.

Barleywine with 2 years of bottling age coming in at 13.6% abv.

Pours like dark garnet cream soda leaving a thick espresso foam head. A full bodied brew that is thick and sticky with honey, plum candy, raisins, prunes, and pumpernickel bread crust. The abv does exactly what its designed for, imparting flavor and body. Fantastic... highly recommended.

Great example of the style, very drinkable with good blend of flavors and almost no alcohol smell or after taste..

 

 

2012 bottle
Pours dark raisin shade thin layer of head dissolves quickly. Smells of raisin, apple, woody note, candied ginger, alcohol.
Taste is orange, cranberry, chocolate, grape. Lots of really nice nuances here, seems like it developed nicely.
Fairly full body, soft mouthfeel. Slight drying.
As a whole this beer is very enjoyable, its soft but big and nuanced. Very smooth, the notes blend together nicely.

 

 

 

The beer pours a fairly creamy looking off-white head the dissipates very quickly. The beer itself is a very good looking brown color that is clear.

The smell is good. It has a fairly powerful overall sweetness to it with deep caramel notes and fig notes as well. There's a fairly powerful alcohol note at the end and finish along a woody bitterness that stands in stark contrast.

The taste is good. The beer's taste is fairly strong with caramel and dark fruit notes along with a sugary note to it that creates a fairly overall sweet taste. There is a slightly boozy note and a bit of cherry tartness along with an unusually strong bitterness that enhances the sweetness by contrast.

The feel is good. It has a slight stickiness in the finish.a The beer is generally a heavy bodied beer that is thick as molasses and very light tingling carbonation.

Overall, a good barleywine but a little too strong and bitter for an English barleywine; rather, it seems to be more of an American style. It still is good grab though.

 

 

 

Hazy dark amber color with beige head. Aroma has syrupy malt, brown sugar and dried figs. Taste has sweet, sugary notes, bitter dried fruits and earthy notes. Medium body and carbonation, quite sticky on the palate.

 

Pours an effervescent chestnut with 2 fingers of tan head. Zero head retention & lacing

S: Dark fruit, woodyness, raisins, boozeyness as this warms

T: Follows the nose sans the raisins, cakey dryness & a little cherry up front. Woody dryness, figs, a touch of booze, more cherry as this warms. Finishes super dry with a touch of Madeira & fig, plus some leafy hops

MF: Medium body, smooth carbonation up front, turns a little more aggresive as it warms

A very well done take on the style, no real dings on this beer other than the nose & appearance

 

 

 

 

Really nice barleywine, very true to the style. More chocolaty than most, and obviously a lot of alcohol content, but still pretty drinkable. pretty thick, some raspberry, very!!! lingering finish. Not as warm as some other barleywines, and therfore could be used in summer days as well. Good stuff

 

 

L: pours think murky brown with no head
S: a mild aroma, dark fruit sweetness
T: big dark fruit juices, semi sweetness, still some bitterness that I don't care for.
F: medium thickness, sticky and smooth until a slightly bitter finish.

 

This is everything you expect in a barleywine.

Murky Ruby Appearance

Rich Malty Dark Fruit Aroma and Taste

Fastastic beer I recommend trying it but I wouldn't buy it often unless the price came down to about 10.99 per 750ml.

In comparing Missouri beers I find this better tasting and true to style than Schlafly and Charleville's barrel/Oak aged barleywine style ales.

I docked the overall based on its high price @$18.00 a 750ml or $9.00 per12.5oz. For the money it doesn't stack up to the caliber of some other outrageous priced beers like the Avery line up of Tweak, Uncle Jacobs Stout, and Old Perseverance.

Got this one in Buffalo in 2016

From a 750 into a snifter
Bottled December 2014

APPEARANCE: Pours a 1+ finger, medium looking, somewhat fizzy, light tan head with good retention. Head fades to a half wisp and ring. A dark maroon or chocolate brown in color with lower levels of carbonation evident. A splotchy wisp remains leaving touches of lacing down the glass.

SMELL: Toffee and some chocolate malt on the nose. Red fruits, burnt brown sugar and light notes of vanilla and caramel. Lots of sweet malts with some booze.

TASTE: Some alcohol, brown sugar, molasses and toffee sweetness up front. Some alcohol at the swallow with a bold and persistent finish of milk chocolate, some caramel and toffee, brown sugar, molasses and red fruits for sure. A touch of bitterness and some alcohol linger.

PALATE: Fuller body and medium levels of carbonation. Enough weight on the palate, semi-creamy, goes down fine and finishes a bit sticky. Some heat lingers.

OVERALL: Really nice stuff. Fuller, smoother, with a great aroma and flavor profile for a darker barleywine. Would definitely pick this up again if I saw it in Buffalo again. Been pretty impressed with Perennial’s big stuff and this one definitely fits the bill. Cheers!

Very good, but not as sweet as a traditional EBW (JW Lees etc.), and slightly more balanced but certainly not as hoppy as an ABW.

 

L: Poured from a bottle to a pint glass. Had a medium brown color and thick consistency. There was a small amount of foamy, off white head that quickly dissipated. Not a whole lot of lacing.

S: A solid aroma of hops, dark fruit, malt, and caramel.

T: Tasted of a lot of different dark fruit ingredients (raisins, figs, plums), some malt, a good amount of caramel, a little butterscotch, a good shot of hops, and rum as well. A big, bracing, complex flavor that gets mellower as you go along. Quite tasty and surprisingly easy to drink.

F: An average amount of carbonation with a smooth finish. Medium-bodied.

O: Vermilion has a couple of minor flaws, but it's an incredibly drinkable beer. Well made.

 

 

Bottling date 12/2014 served at cellar temps in a tulip glass.

Poured a reddish copper color with a nice and tall khaki head. Smelled like caramel and hop candy. Vanilla, fig, raisin, tons of malt, low hop character, sweet and malty in both the nose and taste. Slight oxidation but nothing crazy for a 2 year old beer. Very nice representation of the English barleywine. This should be a cellar staple!