Barley Wine
Big Water Brewery

 

A big 'ol English style barleywine from a brewery I've only had one beer from before. The previous one I enjoyed was a pepperoncini-barrel aged tripel that was actually really good for what it was (and, of course, very unique). This one weighs in at 10% and the bottle claims it's aged in barrels for "no less than six months" which seems a rather bizarre designation for a beer. I get this kind of thing with whiskey because it can be a blend of the best barrels, but I get the feeling that, due to the small size of this brewery, that's not the case here. Regardless, I split this with my housemate and his girlfriend to keep from being too punished by its high ABV.

Pours a fizzy dark brown/mahogany or chestnut color with a short-lasting head that builds itself up to be rather big but which settles very quickly to a very small (less than 1/4 finger) ring in my glass. The color is, of course, quite nice, but the still appearance of the head was a big letdown. The way it fizzled out reminded me of bad homebrew without any real care or craft given towards appearance and, thus, first impressions.

Luckily the nose is quite a bit better. I get a lot of big English toffee, baking spice, light clove, molasses and brown sugar. Very deep nose with definite improvements as the glass gets warmer. Slightly estery from English yeast and raw sugars (I assume). A bit of light char/smoke and fig/prune as well.

Taste is round caramel and toffee, very light chocolate notes, bready malts, herbal hop oils, figs, moderate ethanol and slight tannins. On that note, I'm not getting a ton of barrel here, making the declaration of six months or more of barrel-aging weirdly suspect to me. Pretty good flavor but not much to hold on to and it doesn't warm as well going down as it should given the strength and fair amount of heat it gives off up front.

Feel is a bit thin and, considering the weird uneventful pour and moderately-apparent ethanol, I'm definitely getting the feeling this either refermented a bit in bottle or went a bit "off" in the barrels. It's not bad by any means, but there's a lack of refinement here that a lot of very small, newer NH breweries seem to consistently contend with. Body is a bit slick and bright with more carbonation than expected, making this tough to sip even at warmer temperatures. Barleywines and English-style old/strong ales need a certain temperament to them to make them approachable and this seems to be missing that important aspect to a decent extent.

 

Poured into a 16 oz snifter and purchased at the Case n Keg in Laconia NH. Pours a beautiful mahogany with a solid two inch khaki head that leaves behind a little lace.

Smell is fig, raisin, toffee, clove, vanilla, and some warming alcohol as you would expect from a brew with 10% ABV.

Taste follows the nose starting with some dark fruit, toffee, and clove and finishes with brown sugar, vanilla, oak, and a touch of alcohol lingers on the tongue a bit.

Overall this is a very nice English Barleywine and that isn't my preffered style BW. I normally prefer the over hopped American BW.

Bottle from Bert's
Fairly dark brown with ruby highlights at the edges. Huge raisin and caramel on the nose with some faint oaky vanilla and light chocolate in the background and some earthy hops still poking through underneath. The flavor feels more like an old ale with more toffee and English yeast flavors as well as a bit of sherry like oxidation going on. Light ethanol warming and huge fruit linger in the finish. Medium body with moderate carbonation. Decent Brew, the barrel treatment is nice.

From the 650 ml. bottle released October 2015. Sampled on October 5, 2015.

The pour is dark brown with a short-lived tan head.

The aroma is alive with dark sweet barley malts, plums, prunes, licorice, and charcoal. Almost no hop note.

The mouthfeel is medium to heavy.

The flavor has much of the same dark sweet malt and licorice taste with a bit of booze the explodes at the end. But overall it was a smooth tasting barley wine.