Flight Risk Barley Wine 3rd Anniversary
Counterbalance Brewing Company

 

 

Poured into a Fremont small snifter. Pours a lightly hazy, dark orange brown with a half finger khaki head with good retention and lacing. Aroma of biscuit malt, molasses, figs and dates and some oxidation. Flavor is mildly caramel malt with some light biscuit, plums, raisins, light dates, a little oak and aged, somewhat astringent hops. Medium bodied with light to moderate creaminess. This smelled a lot like the heavy biscuit malt style of English barleywine, but the taste is definitely well hopped American style. The fruit flavors have somewhat thinned out, but mellowed revealing both fresh and dried dark fruit. The finish is dominated by hops that have lost their herbal qualities, but still present a kick. I'm not as fond of this flavor any more and have generally stopped aging heavily hopped barleywines (with the exception of Bigfoot, which seems to age quite gracefully). For the style, this has aged well, with mellowing and integration of the fruit and malt flavors, but the slightly astringent hops left the finish a bit stark. Counterbalance is doing a nice job with their big ales and I'll look for a fresh bottle of the most recent reincarnation of this, because I do like these barleywine/triple IPA styles when the hops are fresh.