Gingerbread Bourbon Barleywine
Hardywood Park Craft Brewery

Look: It pours brown and cloudy with a tan head. Head retention is low.

Smell: There are a combination of ginger and cinnamon up front with a bread backbone.

Taste: It has strong ginger and cinnamon flavors up front. There are bourbon traces in support with a beady backbone. There are also touches on vanilla. It has some orange touches as well.

Feel: It has a full body with a strong warming.

Overall, the balance is obviously towards the ginger and cinnamon. A little more balance with the flavors being a little less I think would have made this a great beer instead of a very good one.

The beer pours a light tan and bubbly head that dissipates quickly. The beer itself is a cloudy dark brown.

The smell is pretty good. It has a gingerbread and cinnamon note on top of some (faint) dark fruit notes. There is a moderate wood note in the finish, but it loses the gingerbread notes.

The taste is pretty good. It starts off with super powerful gingerbread notes and the dark fruit notes come out a lot more than in the smell. The beer has dark fruit notes like dates.

The feel is good. It has heavy medium body with a silty texture and very little carbonation. It has as sticky and slightly thin finish to it.

Overall, this is a decent beer worth trying and works very well for the winter months.

 

There doesn't appear to be a date code on the bottle or the label, however this is from the 2022 GBS Complete Set.

Appearance: The body is a very dark shade of reddish-brown that is completely opaque except for some murky edges. The head is short with dense bubbles that form a creamy head. It has a slightly tan head that leans more to off-white. The head is short but looks good. It slowly fades to a short and tight ring of froth around the edge of the glass. It leaves some sparse camouflage islands of lacing when tilted.

Aroma: A strong wet wood note hits the nose immediately. Hints of cherry and some dates. The wood note is awesome and it is strong enough that it would seem like these are either fresh or rarely used barrels. Tons of wood character. Lighter notes of coffee and toffee creep up over time. Hints of brown sugar. Alcohol is on the nose as well but just enough to notice.

Taste: Toffee up front and loads of it. There is luscious buttered caramel and toasted toffee flavor that strikes the palate right at the start. A touch of black walnut flavor in the middle The flavor starts off really great then it sharply dives off near the middle, where more of a generalized alcohol flavor starts to pick up. There isn't a lot of lingering character in the aftertaste.

Mouthfeel: First and foremost the beer is smooth and insanely accessible despite the advertised "ALCOHOL 13.3% BY VOL" from the label. The beer has a dabble of astringency which dries out the tongue and a touch of lingering alcohol burn which lights up the mouth a bit, but overall the complete package is smooth and easy like buttermilk.

Overall: This is a bit of a rollercoaster beer. It looks pretty good but it takes off suddenly when it comes to the fantastic aroma. The taste kicks in with a solid start but it drops off sharply in the middle and leaves nothing on the finish. The beer feels great on the palate which only strengthens its position. The beer drinks mostly like an English Style Barleywine with somewhat sweeter and toasted notes which are greatly appreciated. This bottle comes with a description which states that "We blended our barleywine recipe which aged 20 months in Henry McKenna Bourbon Barrels and 9 months in A. Smith Bowman's Bourbon Barrells..." The choice of bourbon barrels seems well-placed, because they are fresh enough to taste the wood and get some of the mild tannin quality. The resulting beer is outstanding and I would recommend it to those who enjoy an English Style Barleywine with a bit of a woody edge.

The label also states that this is "A Barleywine Blend Aged in Bourbon Barrels with Gingerbread Spices." Aside from the slightly toasted note of the beer, the gingerbread elements have escaped this. It is especially apparent when it comes to the lack of any gingerbread spice. As an English Style Barleywine aged on Bourbon Barrels I would absolutely recommend this beer. As a gingerbread anything I would not. It is a mixed-bag because barleywine lovers would enjoy it but spiced beer lovers might not. Considering both camps I would recommend it as a whole because there is enough flavor and aroma to win people over. This is especially the case if you like caramelized sugar flavors. I will be looking forward to more barleywines from the brewery that are separate from the gingerbread spiced ale category.