Life Volume 1
Breakside Brewery - SE Taproom

Sampling a cellar temp 22 oz bottle poured into my snifter. I dont see a date stamp on the label anywhere. the beer pours a rich clear chestnut to mahogany color with a creamy khaki colored head. Some light passes through the glass and the foam leaves some clingy lattice on each sip.
Aroma is some caramel and toffee notes with a good amount of pine resin hops and also a bit of apricot or peaches mixed in as well. Has an olde school barleywine aroma, and definitely leaning more American than English.
First sip reveals a smooth textured body with very fine tingly carbonation. Medium body and the beer drinks pretty easy for a bigger brew. Not super sticky feel , like some barleywines can get.
Flavor is similar to the nose advertisements. I get toffee and some caramel with hints of brown sugar too. A little dried fruit, peaches or apricots again and then a good bit of drying slightly astringent bite. Some citrus rind sneaks in here too. the dryness lingers long after each sip. Not really fusol or black peppery bite, this seems to be hop driven on the finish.
This is a tasty and definitely more olde school barleywine. Im enjoying it quite a bit and will sip over the rest of this evening.

22oz bottle picked up at Growlers on Main in Polson, MT; always love seeing a new barleywine, and in a 22oz format at that (reminds me of the old days)
Poured into a Samuel Smith imperial pint glass

p- pours a beautiful amber color w/ burgundy hues; big 2-3f light tan head; looks great
n- soft-med; sweet malt and some zingy notes in there (yeast/rye?)
t- sweet candied and zingy notes throughout; tough to discern- seems like a mix of citrus, apricot, and rye (or wheat); either way, the malt is hearty; some booziness in the finish; pleasant; tasty; unique; has some dry oakiness in the fin/aftertaste as well; sherry and prunes come out as it warms
mf- smooth; med-bodied w/ med carb; a bit sticky
o- really solid stuff, and at a great price as well (less than $7); would definitely have again, and look forward to having more in this series!

review date: 02.23.23
bottle date: n/a

Life Volume 1 – from Breakside Brewery. Acquired from @muchloveforhops3 in BSBIF #1. Reviewed 09/12/23 (Review 3189). Note that I use DD/MM/YY protocol.
Undated bomber. Stored at 34 degrees at home. Served at 56.6 degrees F in a hand washed and dried Jester King snifter. The final temperature was 62.9 degrees F.
Appearance – 3.5
First pour – Medium Amber (SRM 12), clear.
Body – Brown (SRM 20), opaque. Under direct light, same. When rear-lite, ruby and nearly clear.
Head: Large (Maximum 5.2 cm, aggressive center pour), beige, high density, average retention, dropping to a 0.4 cm crown, and rocky complete cap.
Lacing – None.
Aroma – 4.5 – Strong toffee and a bit of caramel. No yeast, no malt, no alcohol (9.5 % ABV as marked on the label).
Flavor – 4.5 – Begins sweet but not cloying with distinct toffee (Think Heath bar). No yeast, no malt. No dimethylsulfide or diacetyl. Weak gastric warming. No ethanol ever tasted.
Palate – 4 – Medium; weakly syrupy; soft carbonation. As it further warms, it seems to thin out a bit.
Final impression and summation: 4 (After deducting 0.25 point for undated personal container) Pretty good. Not too sweet and distinctly tasting of toffee. Too bad neither the bottle nor the website has any info beyond PR stuff. Still, I’d like to do a vertical on the whole series.

massive thanks to my buddy for picking up all five of these that were available when he was out there, we tried to do them all in one night, but as two guys who had already been drinking most of the afternoon, it was too tall a task, and we will have to circle back on volumes 3 through 5, but what a cool series of barleywine, all done with specialty malt from a different maltster, love the project, and its cool these arent all barrel aged and over the top alcoholic, better way to showcase the grain like this, and crazy how different the first two in the series are from each other! nice pretty mahogany color to this one and a lot of head, looks almost bottle conditioned, high rising, tiny bubbles, burlap colored, lacy, sexy. the nose is sweet, caramelized and concentrated, long boiled and immediately rich to me, but also earthy and organic with tanned leather, raisin, and maple aromas, autumnal and cozying to me, in some ways kind of simple, which i think is a cool way to feature this grain, just let it shine. subtle cherrywood and smoke in the taste, mid palate brown sugar and some residual sweetness, definitely an english grain character and fully extracted whole spectrum profile to it, really nice earthy barley malt here, toasted and warming, hearty and dense, but not overly filling or enormous bodied or anything. faint almond in the mix here, toffee, rum and its cane sweetness, dark bread and bran muffin, complex in its simplicity, if that makes sense. long flavor, palate coating, super smooth, and only a little bit warm from the alcohol. gorgeous take on barleywine here, balanced, distinct with this excellent quality malt. pumped on this series!

Many thanks to muchloveforhops3 for this bottle.

A - Dark amber colored pour with nice clarity and dense, creamy, toffee colored lacing. Lots of viscocity on the sides of the glass and slow, steady carbonation.

S - Light candied toffee / caramel aroma and overall very light.

T - Caramel malt base from start to finish with some toasted toffee, and light earthy bitterness. Ends balanced to a slight nod towards the sweeter side.

M - Medium body with gentle carbonation while finishing semi-dry.

O - English style, pretty fantastic and recommended!

Pours a deep amber, good head and lacing, plenty of lacing. Very well done, first sip is very smooth, very clean and with a longish finish. Taste is a roast malt, backed up with toffee, molasses and a hint of a baking spice like nutmeg.

The ABV is present, but not harsh or hot. Good stuff.

Bottle.

A dark mahogany with a dense beige head with good retention and lacing. The nose is excellent. Toasty, nutty, mild caramel, light butterscotch, wet tobacco, a little leather. Whoa such depth. The palate opens with a mild bitterness, earthy, and with a really rich malt depth. Toffee, tobacco, leather, lightly toasted walnuts, dark brown sugar. So much going on. Medium-full in body, softly carbonated, creamy with a touch of sherry. This is phenomenal.

Look: Chestnut brown on the pour and amber in the glass with a nice beige head that swells and rapidly settles to a film, leaving spotty lacing behind
Aroma: Warm brown bread, toasted bread, tobacco, dried dark fruit notes, ethanol, caramel, light fruitiness, and molasses
Taste: Starts out with layers upon layers of rich bready malt with everything from toasted bread to dough and joined by some nice prune, raisin, and caramel. Some fruity hops sneak in before being pushed aside by some molasses-like sweetness and tobacco notes all while the previous maltiness gains tremendous depth. Closes with light ethanol, warmed bread, and dark caramel
Mouthfeel: Full, quite smooth throughout, medium carbonation, and finishes smooth, fairly clean, and with minimal felt alcohol heat
Overall: This is an outstanding beer. Personally, I like my Barleywines to be free of additives and non-barrel aged so once I saw this and heard good things about it from fellow BAers, I scored some and already wish I’d grabbed two bottles. A delicious and smooth Barleywine that leans to the English side with its immense malt profile and depth, but still has a little hoppy kick tucked in there as well. Dangerously drinkable for 9.5% and a beer that continues to evolve as it warms up. Tasty and highly recommended

 

Poured into a Fremont small snifter. Pours a dark reddish orange with a fine, three finger light khaki head with great retention and thick lacing. Aroma of biscuit and dry caramel malt, raisins, toffee and fruitcake dried fruit. Flavor is dry caramel and biscuit malt, dates, raisins, light stone fruit, hints of citrus and mild grassy hops. Light hop bitterness in the finish with residual lingering malt. Medium bodied with moderate creaminess; nice mouthfeel. This series is intended to show off specific malt varieties and malt is the show here. I expected an English style biscuit malt barleywine, but this is not traditional. Almost a hybrid between malty English and hoppy, lighter fruit American styles. It most resembles the English, but has more brighter fruit notes, a bit of caramel and a distinct hop bitterness bite in the finish. It is a nice combination. The malt variety is a pleasant one with a variety of fruit notes in the flavor. I'm a fan of malty barleywines and I liked this one. I've only seen this Volume 1 (2-3 were apparently released at the same time); it would have been fun to have tried them all in one sitting to get the full benefit of the variations from the malt varieties. Stands just fine on its own too.