12th Anniversary American Barleywine
Relic Brewing Co.

Sampling a cellar temp 16 oz can poured into my snifter. Beer was packaged 2/21/2024. Picked up from the brewery around that same time.
the beer pours a clear caramel to amber color and rests in the glass only slightly darker with a bit of a ruby tint. A creamy khaki head of almost 2 cm foams up and fades with some scattered lattice and a dense clingy edge layering that sticks around for the sampling.
Aroma is a little toffee and caramel and mixed with some pine sap and hints of grapefruit rind. mild brown sugar too, decent balance of hop and malt character.
First sip reveals a medium to lighter body and fairly smooth texture with fine, gentle carbonation. Less thick and no stickiness on the physical feels, makes kinda meh for me.
Flavor is some caramel and a bit of brown sugar which rolls to some pine and rindy hop bite that dries out my palate and lingers with some mild astringency. Never any hint of the ABV and the beer is really easy to drink, but the physical "lightness" leaves me a little disappointed in this one.

A bit too much banana and nut flavor. Not quite bitter enough for the American sub-style, falling almost more in-between English and American styles. Appropriate notes of leather and bark.