Gno More Gnomes
Brewski

Deep veiled and cloudy amber red color. Slightly creamy light brown 2 finger head, lasting around 5 minutes, with decent legs and swirl reaction. Flavors of figs, berries, plums, molasses, toffee, dark grains, and herbal hops. Slick and oily medium body with shy carbonation. Strong strength finish, a bit roasted while more estery, with a red ale cinnamon and nutmeg feel, also slightly boozy. Closer an English style of barleywine with a more sugary profile and less spicy. Overall very good quality craft.

Serving Type: 330 mL Bottle

L- Pours a hazy reddish-amber with a head that shows in the form of one big patch of off-white that works down to a few little patches almost instantly.

S- Distinct, dark fruity punch (thanks to the Fig infusion, i'm guessing) backed by a bready malt flavour and a light floral hop note. At 10% I expected to have at least a little bit of alcohol in the nose, but i'm not getting anything. Pleasantly surprised!

T- Very interesting taste with a few things going on that I haven't experienced before: Up front i'm getting a distinctly Fig sweetness, that transitions to a less sweet grape note, which then gives way to a light caramel malt. Finish features a light kiss of bitterness. Honestly, this is the first time I've ever tasted distinctly complex sweet notes in a beer. Incredible if you ask me.

F- Very low, almost non-existent carbonation and a silky, nearly chewy body.

O- I've had very few barleywine's but I must say that this one really knocked it out of the park for me. Incredible and complex flavours and aroma. Not something I would drink all of the time, but definitely one I want to revisit.

 

 

 

A fig-infused barleywine? That's a new one on me.
Lovely color, between amber and brown. Hazy and with some sediment.
The head is almost non-existent, and the carbonation level is low.
I don't taste fruit (figs) but I do get sweetness with a subtle bitterness, and plenty of malt.
And alcohol, although the "burn" is on the light side.
Very impressive, and very drinkable.

 

 

Day 16 of the 2016 Craft Beer Calendar.

330ml bottle, day 16 of the 2016 Craft BeerAdvent calendar - a barleywine, brewed with figs, and a collaboration between this fanboy Swedish brewery and Evil Twin.

This beer pours a mostly clear, dark orange-brick brown colour, with three fingers of puffy, finely foamy, and somewhat creamy beige head, which leaves a few instances of bay-spanning bridge lace around the glass as it slowly seeps away.

It smells of bready caramel malt, a touch of biscuity toffee, some earthy Middle Eastern fruitiness that could be figs (but also dates or prunes), red grapes, a bit of tanned leather, faint generic tabletop spice, and very tame leafy, weedy, and mildly perfumed floral hop bitters. The taste is semi-sweet, doughy caramel malt, toffee pudding, muddled fig/date/Muscat grape fruity notes, black pepper dust, a subtle under the basement stairs mustiness, and some plain, if rather bitter earthy, leafy, and herbal hoppiness.

The carbonation is adequate in its basically supportive frothiness, the body a solid medium-heavy weight, and mostly smooth, with perhaps some of that seemingly free-range bitterness making a few nicks in the fresh paint job here. It finishes off-dry, the big malt, exotic cradle of civilization fruitiness, and gentlemanly warming alcohol keeping the party going well past bedtime.

Overall, this is a pretty decent example of the style (straight-up barleywine, that is, as it is neither English nor American in its bearing), with a nice boost from the adjunct figs. Not to mention the well-integrated 20-proof alcohol quotient - any more of this, and I might indeed be seeing gnomes!