Bourbon Barrel English Style Barleywine
Bluegrass Brewing Co. - East St. Matthew's

Nice aroma of caramel, vanilla, and brown sugar. Lovely taste of figs and raisins, maybe dried cherries. The white head leaves beautiful lacing on the glass. Everything a barleywine should be, really. I'd drink it again anytime. Had on tap at Local Option, Chicago.

Had on tap at BBC. Served in a half pint.

A: Golden, crystal clear appearance with an EXTREMELY frothy head that looked like this was poured from a nitro tap.

S: Tiny traces of bourbon for sure, but this was very understated in this arena overall. Caramel, malt, and a bit of candy sugar. This BW was English alright...

T: Bourbon on the beginning, followed by a rather gargantuan amount of booze that damn near coated my teeth with that shit! After a few sips, I started to get used to this however, but still longed for a bit more hop sizzle. Dry as hell on the finish.

M: Thin with a capital "T." Once again, BBC really needs to fix this issue. I've yet to try a single brew by them that I would describe as "creamy." Lots of lacing. Extremely low carbonation... almost flat even.

O: Somewhere inside this brew, a world class one exists... but this one needs some work. I would start with adding more carbonation...

Deep crimson amber with little carbonation and just a ring around my snifter of off white. Nice color.

Sweet date and prune aromas lead into vanilla, fruity bourbon, toasted oak, earthy hops, light pine, caramel, toffee, and rum soaked raisins.

Not bad. Chunky malt character, with a grainy bitter middle and finish. Earthy hops linger but not before toffee, caramel, raisin, vanilla, light bourbon, date, fig, rock candy and some floral notes. Semi sweet in the middle but drys out quickly on the finish. Nice barley wine would have like it to be sweeter. Carbonation levels are a little high in the mouth as well, less would have been better.