Lord Maris - Rye Barrel
Wolf's Ridge Brewing

8 ounce bottle, packaged 08/13/21. Bought this one a few months ago so it seems there's still some bottles around locally. Served in a snifter, the beer pours a murky dark reddish/brown color with about a half inch or so tan head. Head retention and lacing are both good. Aroma is nice, the brew smells like caramel, figs, toffee, brown sugar, rye whiskey and some vanilla. For the most part I think the taste is similar to the aroma, but with the addition of some maple, oak and some dark bready flavors. Mostly sweet tasting but not overpoweringly so. Still a good amount of barrel character too, I think this one has aged well enough. Mouthfeel/body is slick, smooth and a bit rich with a moderate amount of carbonation. Certainly worth picking up if you like English style barleywines!

8oz bottle poured into Rastal stemless tumbler.

bottled on date of 8/12/21.

Appearance: Hard pour results in a big 4 fingers tall off white/khaki colored head. Body of the beer is dark brown with red hues. Thick cap has some staying power.

Smell: Caramel, brown sugar, and toffee notes are big. Moderate hefty oak and light rye whiskey spice notes intermix with big whiffs of sweet bourbon. hint of lighter dark fruit notes too.

Taste: Very sweet out the gates. Caramel, honey, and toffee. Bourbon notes start to pick up and then it gets boozy in the middle and stays boozy to the finish. A bit of light leathery barrel. The spicy rye notes are fairly light and easily missed front the residual sweetness of this barleywine. This one finishes sweet; you taste maple, bourbon, Bit-O-honey candies, vanilla, light oak, light spice, and lingering caramel. There is also an astringent flavor that lingers even further past the sweetness of the aftertaste of this barleywine.

Mouthfeel: medium full bodied barleywine. Low and adequate carbonation levels. This boarders on the line of being sweet and cloying. The booziness is light to moderate and amplifies the sweetness of the beer. The sweetness of the beer definitely makes the beer seem bigger than it is.

Overall: First beer from this brewery. Gotta love an English Barleywine in rye barrels... Decent rye barrel aged barleywine, but its not a standout when I drink so many of the barrel aged barleywines from Revolution. Boarders on sweet and cloying. It's hard to stand out here when Revolution is able to pull such smooth and complexly layered barrel aged barleywines from the barrel program so consistently. I am spoiled by Revolution and yes...it's hard to find other BW's of Revolutions quality.

8 oz bottle, born on 8/13/21, poured into a wolf's ridge tulip glass at 55 degrees F:
L - brown and murky with a head that quickly disappeared
S - whiskey, toffee, caramel
T - follows the nose, very nice blend of flavors
F - thick mouthfeel with minimal carbonation
O - very nice, rye whiskey a bit too prominent, will probably fade a bit with age