Sunday (2024)
Cycle Brewing

 

Best cycle beer in a while! Pours the darkest brown opaque body, mushroom colored cap turns into a thick collar. Barley with big toffee, plus quite a bit of caramel, rich bourbon, earth, molasses and a kiss of cocoa. Taste adds prune and a hint of raisin, here the toffee, barley, and bourbon are the stars. Feel is marked by the booze and the barley the most, slight drying tannins with thick finish but not as much as usual cycle, replace with dryness with a hint of hop, it is welcomed.

poured from a 750mL bottle into a perennial snifter. dark brown with little to almost no foam head. not quite stout black but quite dark for a barleywine. bourbon barrel and caramel up front on the nose with light chocolate and even lighter dark fruits in the background. taste follows. get lots of caramel up front with bourbon, oak and chocolate in the background. as it warms and opens up you get some dark fruits and even dark bread aromas and flavors that try to make an appearance but never really come close to being a dominant flavor or aroma. it would be sweet given all the caramel flavors except that the bourbon barrel-aging seems to cut that or balance it somewhat. thick, full mouthfeel. doesn’t really get syrupy but maintains a thickness on the tongue through to the finish. i was very impressed with this. 2023 Sunday’s coconut BA barleywine was very good but this is even better.

Sweet caramel and brown sugar malty, subtle dark fruits, a hint of dark chocolate, and a vanilla-bourbon barrel nose on this one! Taste follows exactly with a soft and full mouthfeel and a boozy, bourbon barrel finish. As it warms, however, a touch of hoppy bitterness starts to peek out and interferes with the sweet caramel vibes and bourbon finish. For my palate and preferences, this hoppy bitterness is not something I prefer in my barrel-aged barleywines. Despite this, it is still pretty good just not something I would seek after again.