Brother of the Quill
Fieldwork Brewing Co.

Poured from a 500mL bottle into a Smog City Brewing Co. snifter. Pours a dark amber with ruby edges and an over two fingers of khaki colored foam head. Aromas of dark fruits up front paired with lighter caramel and even lighter herbal tea. Taste is cherry , pine, mint and some light herbal tea. Full mouthfeel. Somewhat sticky and with a lower carbonation than I would have guessed. Pretty decent English-style barleywine. Was weirded out at first by the minty, herbal aroma and flavor but grew to like it over the session. Most certainly due to the hops but not overbearing.

The caramel and toffee are both beautifully bountiful, but this isn't overly sweet. Earthy bitterness, faint citrus, and raisin provide ample balance. This is a wonderful beer, thanks Ryan!

Pours a caramel hue with a tinge of amber on the edges. A sandy colored head asserts a tad over an inch, hangs for a bit, and settles in at a thin film.
Nose presents a nice melange of sweet notes: toffee, dates, and caramel.
The flavor definitely showcases the aforementioned sweet notes but it also presents an earthy, slightly dry woody bitterness. Subtle, but it does tamp back the malt a tad. It does hint at stepping away a bit from style, in the direction of an American barleywine, but just a bit.
Mouthfeel is the right heft and a tad sticky.

Poured at fridge temp. Pours a murky brown with a little bit of head. The nose is toffee, figs, big malts, raisins, vanilla, and a hint of spice. Really smooth and inviting.

The taste is fantastic. Big notes of toffee, leather, dark bread, figs, plums, raisins, grass, and dark malts.

Mouthfeel is medium bodied with a mix of sweet and bitter on the aftertaste.

2024-12-28
500ml bottle served in a footed pilsner glass. If the bottle is dated, I don't see it. Bought it at Full Throttle Bottles three weeks ago.

Pours on the light side of murky (after the sediment, anyway), dark amber, smallish but certainly existent head. Retention is not bad, leaves a creamy multi-millimeter layer some time after the initial pour. Smell is oak, toffee, caramel, some orange blossom. Booze.

Taste is bitter nuts and woody tannins, caramel and toffee sweetness, earthy bitterness, and let's re-affirm the caramel and toffee sweetness.

Mouthfeel is big, thick, sticky, bordering on chewy. Overall, this is quite nice.

deep red-brown cough syrup in color, no head and has a nice translucent but sometimes matte and almost opaque transition appearance. feel is par for the course, syrupy and thick, sticky and very smooth. smell is subtle with some earthy and mineral notes. rich and refined taste.

Poured into a Fremont small snifter. Pours a medium to dark red orange with a fine, one finger light khaki head with good retention and nice lacing. Aroma of dry caramel malt, fresh and dried plums, raisins and hints of apricot. Flavor is caramel malt, raisins, fresh plums, apricot, peach and honey; hints of dates. Medium bodied with light to moderate creaminess. A pleasant, bright barleywine that definitely leans English, but has a little lighter stone fruit character as well. Body seems a little on the light side, but there is lots of flavor and the fruit and malt have a fine profile. The ABV is well covered, but warming. With the malt feeling a little light, it may not stand up to extended aging, but I like the flavor so well I'm going to pick up another to see what a year will do. I'll be watching the bigger beers from this brewery in the future.

 

 

Brewed with admiration for the over one and a half centuries of Barleywine history in England; we made this over-sized ode to Barleywines of the past with select British malts and a laborious boil. (Source: Fieldwork Brewing Company)