Worn
The Veil Brewing Co. - Production Brewery

No bottling date (released on 4/7/20, so presumably bottled within a few days of that date); consumed on 1/27/21

Pours a dingy, pale brown body loaded with orange highlights and topped with a dense, fluffy two fingers of off-white foam; good head retention leaves a thin layer of cap, large, creamy collar, and a comprehensive spread of chunky, soapy lacing holding tightly across the walls of the glass.

Aroma meshes pineapple and raw hop cone immediately upfront, as an intensely floral perfume develops to meet sweet stone fruits into the middle of the bouquet; conifer forest, ripe beeswax, and an underlying floor lacquer tone a back end closing on the sweeter side, with candied apricot, caramel malts, and grapefruit syrup tinged with oaky vanilla finishing.

Taste offers caramel, toffee, and a distinct wheated bourbon influence to open the profile; an underlying barrel grit fades into the mid-palate, hinting steadily toward notes of pear jam, and toasted vanilla bean between orange oils and candied peaches into the finish; a sugary sweetness lingers past the swallow.

Mouthfeel shows a medium-full body and rounded, fluffy carbonation, sporting the mildest prickly warmth and briefly creamy before a heightening oily texture takes over toward the mid-palate; a tinge of charry bitterness is masked through the back end beneath a steadily persistent warmth and building, nearly syrupy sweetness; the finish, though, ends on a a slightly splintery, mildy drying note.

Bourbon saturates the foundation of a barleywine otherwise dominated by an intermingling of evolving hop tones, imparting a distinct rainbow of fruity characteristics to balance a malt sweetness which can admittedly start to overwhelm the palate; all in all, this one edges dangerously toward cloying territory, but finds just enough oak to quell the general richness of the beer.