Bent Frame
Chainline Brewing Company

Poured into a Fremont small snifter. Pours a medium reddish orange with a thin, light khaki head that dissipates to patches with light lacing. Aroma of dry caramel malt, plums, peaches and a hint of citrus. Flavor follows, with dry caramel malt, mixed stone fruit, piney and lightly citrus hops. Piney hop and toffee finish, a little spicy. Medium bodied with light to moderate creaminess. It's been a while since I've had an real American style barleywine, I guess it's not a popular style any more. This is very much a hopped barleywine, rather than a glorified triple IPA; the malt body is dark fruit and malty. The fruit flavors are not easy to parse out, but the overall effect is flavorful. The hops are mostly piney with a light citrus overlay, NW leaning. I'm no longer aging hopped barleywines, and I'm glad I'm drinking this fresh. The hops have a nice herbal quality and meld well with the fruit. This is a well made and tasty American style barleywine and actually one of the more memorable ones. Well done.

2021-01-29
375ml corked/caged bottle served in a snulip. No date (or even abv) on the label. I bought it late last year at the brewery, if I remember correctly.

Pours very dark, translucent ruby-brown, smallish head that fades a little bit. Looks thick and fairly still. Smell is barleywine, rich and boozy, dates and wet wood. Maybe just a bit of toffee, and the dates can easily be reinterpreted as raisins.

Taste is moderate nutty bitterness, some piney bitterness, strong burnt toffee flavor, the dates are definitely still there but that burnt toffee is taking over. The piney bitterness is also building pretty strongly.

Mouthfeel is thick, smooth, chewy, still. Overall, nice solid American barleywine.