Bosstime
Brewski

 

 

 

 

 

Served in a tulip from the bottle.

Appearance: slightly hazy amber with medium bubbles creating an off-white head raining roughly half a finger's length off the body.

Smell: hints of coffee and malt, strong scent and like gets in the nostrils.

Taste: sweet yet bitter coffee. Malts infused with a feel of toasted bread.

Mouth: semi sticky with a dry finish. Subtle feel coming off a touch sweet.

Overall: Very good beer which comes off as a hybrid DIPA crossover. Salud!

im not sure why we dont see more of this, coffee in barleywine. it makes good sense, something that has the potential to be acidic and bitter to cut the usual sweet density of the barleywine style. this is a cool beer, and while it is on the lighter side of barleywine from a malt depth and body standpoint, some of that the coffee adds is offsetting in the aforementioned way, lightening it up in a way, and making it more complex in a special way. the coffee in this is pretty robust in the nose with a cocoa and fresh roasted note to it above the maple sort of sweetness of the base beer. its not real cooked or concentrated to me, even feels a little thin for all the flavor when i drink it, but there is a sturdy rudder of rich grain through this, just kind of simple as they go, almost like the coffee is needed to add character, especially in the absence of much yeast character. i get a little bitterness from the coffee, a toffee thing in the grain, and quite a bit of alcohol. this really comes alive as it warms up, a lot more nuance emerging, cognac and vanilla notes, trace smoke to the coffee, and its warming morning time vibes. light in body, full of flavor. this is a cool beer, a neat use of coffee in a style that should get this treatment more. i like this a lot for the fall.