FrankenWine
Drake's Brewing Co.

 

 

On tap at Beer Revolution.

A: Pours a cloudy, orange-chestnut body with poorly retaining off-white head.

S: Grapefruit pith, lots of grass, floral hops, mild caramel and toffee. It hits all the right barleywine notes, but the excessive grassiness isn't appealing to me.

T: Grass, grapefruit, and a touch of floral hops. The flavor works against the beer; it's quite bitter, delivering little in the way of malt sweetness to counteract those notes. I usually like high flavoring hops, substantial malt sweetness, and a touch of bitterness in my barleywines; this reverses the proportions of all of those.

M: Medium-full bodied; sticky, with lingering bitterness.

O: I couldn't bring myself to finish it.

Tap @ Pizza Port Carlsbad. Poured clear bronze with a very short white head. Good lacing. Boozy fruit and caramel nose that is quite hoppy, more of the grapefruit variety. Big taste. Bold malt with a nice bitter, earthy hop companion. Citrus and grapefruit, but candided by the malt. Good, rough alcohol finish. Grainy and earthy goodness I like in a barleywine. Long, sticky, chewy finish. Drakes comes through again.

On tap at Pizza Port Carlsbad
Poured a deep burnt orangish color with a small dirty white head. Nose is hops and malts, boozy, piney. Taste is wow! Amazingly good. It was well balanced for such a big beer, chewy, piney and floral with some dried fruits, brown sugar.
Pretty boozy but damn good. Heavy hitter that deserves some respect. Props to Drakes for making a great barleywine.

on tap @ Hamilton's in San Diego, CA

A- bronze to amber in color with films of lace and good retention on 2 fingers worth of off white foam

S- fruity, hoppy, malty, sweet, floral

T- dried fruit, caramel with citrus and pines hops followed by cookie like flavors with a hoppy edged finish, hints of alcohol

M- smooth full body with a hot & coarse finish

D- excellent barleywine, warms very well, mild and balanced yet very tasty, recommended

a: nice maroon/brown body with light foam that could not be called head on top

s: very medicinal cherry robitussin scents; fruity sweet malts; light hop backbone;

t: very medicinal like swedish bitters; alcohol; light chocolate; sweet fruity malts; light hops

m: smooth and syrupy thick; there is more than one way that this beer is like tussin

d: very interesting and absolutely worth a try but not a beer i would be dying to try again

Served in a Maudite tulip at Hamilton's Tavern in San Diego for five dollars, this one seemed to be the popular brew that day, reviewed from notes taken a few weeks back, was excited to get to try this draught only beer

A-Color was a dark ruby red that was on the verge of being brown, 1 1/4 inch off white slightly creamy head, stuck around for close to five minutes, decent retention, nice lacing

S-Hops and I mean tons of them, piney and floral accents as well, big caramel malt scent, some honey, slight boozy aroma, faint dark fruits, some citrus, and toffee

T-I have to almost prepare myself mentally to drink a barleywine and this one did not take much preparation, the hoppiness threw me off from the first sip to the last, there was some sweet malt and fruity accents in the middle, but dry bitter notes were present at all other times, there was not much a boozy flavor either, which is almost standard in this style of beer, nicely balanced but I may be a little biased because I am a huge fan of hops and for once they were not overshadowed by malt and alcohol in a barleywine

M-Dry, bitter, sometimes chewy, and slightly sweet mouthfeel, suprisingly not boozy, lots of carbonation, taste lasted a good while, the thinnest body I have ever seen for a barleywine

D-Barely could finish my glass but that was mainly because the ABV immediately caught up with me, not heavy on the stomach, alcohol is very well hidden for how strong it is, would have been fine with a six ounce serving though

This seriously could have passed for an imperial IPA it had so much hops in it, the color is the only thing that might make you think otherwise for the majority of the time, never heard of this beer before seeing it here, cannot go wrong with Drake's high alcohol beers in my opinion, would love to drink again, definitely recommended