Ripped Van Winkle
Cloud 9 Brewery

pretty awesome to pop into a brewery randomly and encounter five different vintages of their barleywine, especially in high summer, have to imagine thats not too common. anyway, i got the oldest one when here yesterday, a 2015, and it definitely tastes tired, faded, and one dimensional, like its collapsed in on itself a little bit, ill have to go back for the others and see, but this definitely tastes like its seen better days, at least i hope it wasnt this objectively mediocre when it was first made. a medium amber color with a patchy white head, aroma of wet cardboard, hot alcohol, and a little caramel, long boiled and rich to me, also slightly yeasty, not a whole lot happening. the flavor is also kind of monotone, just old wet grain, definitely oxidized, yet still hotly alcoholic, even after five years. it almost tastes like nothing until about midway through it, then an english malt profile and some papery character come on, then just the booze. its cool to have the older vintages flowing, but this is a novelty, maybe more fun as part of a flight, but i am holding out much higher hopes for the newer years. this is pretty rough at this point...

edit: had a newer vintage last night, either 2018 or 2019, the server didnt tell us, but its markedly better than the older one i reviewed above. very sweet, but with some nice depth, a yeast element, rich brown sugar and maple flavor, and a well hidden alcohol strength. i have to improve some scores here. this beer seems primed for successful ageing, maybe just a better start this time...

edit: had all five in a flight last time in, and 2016 was the clear winner at this point, mature but not faded, rich but not sugary, i know they switched brewers at least once in this run, 2017 was the least impressive, and they went up from there, but the oldest two were seemingly a different base. raising a few scores to reflect an average of all the vintages. really cool they run so many of these at once, a fun project, and somehow this place remains under the radar, secretly one of the best in boise, and killer food and patio!

On tap at the brewery. Excellent barley wine, smooth despite the high abv. Lots of malt, light brown in color, skimpy head, but excellent all around. Beware!