Maria’s Garden
Barreled Souls Brewing Company

Pours a slightly murky dark cola color and some aggressiveness resulted in about a quarter inch of tight, beige foam that actually persisted a while and ended up as a hefty ring and a huge island. Fine bubbles coat the glass on the swirl. It clears up some as it warms.

Rich aroma - dates/figs, toffee and brown sugar, some cherry, oaky port wine grapiness, and I'm getting some nuttiness and some vanilla sweetness. Maybe a hint of maple syrup? The ABV is not evident.

Oh my word is this luscious on the tongue! Both in flavor and feel. It's sweet but not stupid sweet. It's got the toffee/caramel/brown sugar thing going on but there's some dark, bready, malt flavor peeking through. Definitely getting port notes and some oakiness that shows more as an aromatic in the back end of the taste. It's nearly got a cognac character to it. The dark fruit is initially dark sweet cherry but there's some raisin and date happening as well. I'm getting a little nutty flavor - hazelnut or almonds. I swear I pick up some maple - not sure where that is coming from. A bit of vanilla. I'll keep reminding myself of the ABV because I can't taste it even though it is quite warming. I really enjoy the aftertaste - aromatic cherry, lingering sweetness, the maple conundrum, and just a bit of oak spiciness.

The feel is luxurious. The remaining bubbles are acting like crema making this a silky smooth sipper. The carbonation is smooth - very fine and not overdone. For all the flavor intensity it's delivering, most of the aftertaste is on the aromatic side. It essentially finishes clean.

Well, can ya tell I'm really into this one? It's a real treat - Barreled Souls at their best delivering the five run homer. This is a beer I'd call elegant. Fantastic brew.

Sampling a cellar temp 500 ml bottle poured into my trusty snifter. Beer was bottled 5/27/2024, and picked up at the brewery this past August. its been in my cellar since that day.
the beer pours a dark mahogany color and no light is passing through my glass. A dense creamy beige head of about 1 cm foams up on the pour and fades to a sturdy surface covering and thin edging. This foam does leave some scattered lattice when I take a sip or swirl my glass. The beer has a bit of a coca cola appearance when I swirl.
Aroma is rich toffee, black cherry notes, pipe tobacco, some brown sugar, and a bit of port flavor and red grape. No hop character and no fusol booziness anywhere on the nose.
First sip reveals a medium body with very fine and gentle carbonation. Texture is smooth and the beer is very easy to drink.
Flavor is sweet, but certainly not candy or cloying up front. Some brown sugar and toffee mix with red grape and port notes, plus again some sweeter black cherry note. I never get any hops and no peppery bite or warming to betray the booze on this beer.
Dangerously easy to drink and very enjoyable barleywine. I wish I had several more bottles of this one, the port and barleywine work soooo well together!

This one pours a fairly dark brown color, with a small head, and a little bit of lacing.

This smells like caramel, pecan, sticky maple, breadiness, and some port.

Port can often be an overwhelming barrel choice, but the base barleywine is strong and burly enough to stand up to it. This has some nice dark breadiness, caramel, maple, toffee, a really nice spicy oakiness, and a pleasantly slightly jammy port note.

This is medium bodied, creamy, and not all that boozy, with a decent drinkability.

This is definitely one of the best port barrel aged beers I’ve had – they don’t always work, but when they do, they’re delicious.