Weights & Measures
Exhibit 'A' Brewing Company

 

2024 edition poured from a can into a snifter
Appearance – the beer pours a murky brownish-red color with a huge head of brown tinted foam. The head has a fantastic level of retention, fading slowly over time and leaving tons of foamy lace on the sides of the glass.
Smell – The aroma is rather massive of a bready smell mixed with a big showing of earthy and pine hops. Along with these smells comes notes of sweetness with caramel and toffee being the strongest, but with them accompanied by some candied sugar, raisin, cherry, and plum. Rounding it all out are notes of wood and must as well as some yeast and spice.
Taste – the taste begins much sweeter than the nose would have let on, with a big showing of caramel and toffee paired with the bready malt that was in the nose. Right from the start the booziness is noticed, with it getting stronger as the taste advances. At the same time there is a good hit of hop right upfront as well, with flavors of pine and earth the strongest, but with some lighter notes of grapefruit in there as well. There is also a light dark fruit taste of raisin, and some nice fruit cake like flavors which fade a touch as the taste moves forward on the tongue. At the end wood and must join in, leaving one with a big and rich boozy taste to linger on the tongue.
Mouthfeel – The body is thick and chewy with a lower level of carbonation.
Overall – A big and hearty barleywine, startling the line between English and American style. Pretty enjoyable overall.

 

16 oz. can - 2024 vintage

Pours slightly hazy maroon red brown with a creamy off white foam head. Notes of dark fruit, dried fruits, berry, red grape, orange marmalade, leather, tobacco, vanilla, caramels, brown sugar, toffee, molasses, hint of chocolate, subtle floral tropical citrus, piney earthy herbal hops, mild peppery spice, thick, rich and viscous, smooth medium plus bodied, sticky.

 

Pours a hazy dark brown with a 1F head and light lacing.

Smells of toasted malt, caramel, molasses sweet fruit.

Tastes of toasted malt, lightly bitter hops, brown sugar, raisins and plums with a sweet then bitter, boozy finish.

Medium body with light carbonation. Lightly lush and syrupy mouthfeel.

This is a very strong, mellow, sweet brew that you can think of being half way between a barleywine and a quad.

The pours is a very slightly cloudy dark honey color with a nice, creamy looking off white head. The head dissipates and leaves a huge island and a scant ring. The microbubbles in the ring coat the glass nicely.

The smell is sweet up front, no sign of alcohol at first Toffee, caramel, brown sugar. Toasted malts. Honey-like. Seems like a lot if sweet going on. There's a little nut-like smell, and a vague fruity aroma. The alcohol peeks out, but not aggressively.

Full of flavors. As expected it opens sweet - honey and brown sugary. That sweetness kind of covers the malts initially, but as the sweetness fades a bit, there is a nice toasty malt flavor. Fairly mild hop bitterness mid taste that checks the sweetness. Caramel, toffee flavors plus some dried fruits and a more estery fruit note that I think is pear. It's coming across like a Madeira wine in some respects. For the big flavor impact, it trails off nicely - more malty, a bit more herbal and mildly spicy hop flavors, earthy in the aftertaste. There's some dark fruit, but not very heavy - maybe dark sweet cherry, raisins. It's kind of subtle.

Feel is full, rich, and creamy. The alcohol isn't terribly strong but it is a little tingly and warming. At this point, it's not that hard to take a bigger sip that one probably should. Maybe it has mellowed substantially.

This is a very good beer. Packs a huge flavor that I haven't done justice to at all. The malt flavors are great and the other flavors pay full compliment. Not overly sweet and the ABV has either damped down or it was pretty well integrated to begin with.

One of the best barley wines I've had in a long time. Rich in malt flavor with the right amount of firm hop bitterness.

16 oz can acclimated to 53°F and poured properly into a snifter.

Pours a cozy, murky chestnut/auburn color with a 3 finger eggnog colored head. It looks very nice, I've come to associate this appearance with sincere gratification.

Initial aroma is alcohol fumes, with a hint of caramel. After agitating a maltiness becomes present, with a slight sweetness. Agitating again I notice a strong fruit esther. I'm not sure but I feel I smell pear.

Initial taste is hard to discern, other than a general sweetness and alcohol warmth. On the second taste I notice dried plum/date/raisin notes, as well as a slight winter spice flavor. It's also very sweet upfront and in the aftertaste, sweet in a malty way. The sweetness increasing as I get further into it. Something unrealized until more than halfway done was that the sweetness reminds me of an eggnog or custard, a taste only attainable through an egg based dessert that I love so much, I figure this has something to do with the higher alcohol taste often found in egg based desserts. This sweetness hits the entire tongue, but hits the back and back of the sides hardest.

Noteworthy also is that at 10.5 ABV, the alcohol sensation isn't hidden but it's not at all unpleasant. It's not a burn, rather an intense warmth in the inhale and aftertaste.

Mouthfeel is very very smooth, a pleasure to drink. This one glides over the palette. The carbonation is a little bit that of a nitro, small bubbles.

I see this as perfect for drinking slowly next to a fire at the end of the day while wearing a robe at the beginning of a weekend after a long week.

 

I really like this Barleywine. Some beers in the style have a finish which is too sharp, masking the fruit. This beer is nicely balanced with fruit and just enough bitterness.

 

 

Hoppy Hanukkah 2022 box - night 6.

Pours brownish red haze with thick frothy foamy cap that quickly fades to a nice lace when heavy poured from tall can (labeled “Vintage 2022 - inspected by L. Lord”) into tall tulip glass. Malty nose with sweet brown sugar and candied fruit, and slight bitter sour finish. Crisp and upfront English-style barley wine at 10% ABV.

16oz can poured into a small snifter.

A: Deep red-orange color, approaching brown. The richness of it makes it barely opaque. A finger and a half of beige head actually retains pretty well, but does settle out after a good while. Small wisps and tiny dots of lacing.

S: A lot of treacle syrup up front. Sugary and rich. Bread pudding with ribbons of caramel. Candy shell. Nutty in a walnut sort of way. Deep malt complexity brings a lot of golden raisin and fruit skins. There's a whiff of alcohol to let you know it means business, and a good estery tropical dimension too. It comes across a bit like a sauternes, or even a nice malty Irish whiskey that's been finished in a madeira barrel. Kind of a faint spice cake sort of thing going on too. Pretty great nose.

T: A hearty English malt character rules the early going. Very bready, lots of crust and nuttiness. Treacle syrup. Caramel and bread pudding. More crust and a fair amount of toasty grain. Golden raisin and spiced pears. Sweet throughout, though there is some earthy and mildly bitter hops pulling through mid-palate. Herbal. Brush of alcohol brings a faint bit of vinous sauternes-like character. Finishes with some shortbread and toast, garden herb, and trailing spice.

M: Full and rich in body. Round and creamy, with a coating feel from the residual sugars. Ample but gentle carbonation provides a little lift with a soft texture that prickles at the tongue ever so slightly. Soothing alcohol warmth, but nothing I'd call remotely hot.

O: This is GREAT English barleywine. Very good quality malt at work, and fermented perfectly. It takes a lot to coax this much complexity out of that malt, and this is quite a deep and contemplative brew. Very impressive. I love it as-is, but if they ever want to brew it again for barrel aging, I think it's a safe bet that a sauternes barrel would work. It'd be an interesting choice for an Irish whiskey barrel that previously saw madeira or sherry too.

 

 

Canned 2020/11/20, excited for a new barleywine from Exhibit A!
Pours an off-white smaller fizzy head with med-low retention, a touch of lacing, decent legs, semi hazy med auburn to iced-tea reddish brown color

Nose has some nice sweet aromas, sweet toffee, caramel, even a bit of a butterscotch toffee candy (I can't remember the name of the famous candy), some reddish toasty malt a bit like the candy covering on candied apple, a bit of bread dough and gristy malt, light herbal hops, there's a bit of a honey cake as well, and light fruits

Taste starts with tons of honey, raw honey and honey cake as well, into more sweet characters like the caramel and sweet toffee, biscuity butter cookie as well, a bit of fruity flavors but can't pinpoint a specific fruit, some herbal earthy hop notes but not much, with a med-light bitterness, light smooth alcohol and perfumey phenol like notes, and those fruity esters, a bit of reddish malt toasty notes and some molasses bread crust, finishes semi sweet and a touch sticky, med bitterness on the finish with a bit more herbal slight spicy hops,

Mouth is fuller bod, almost syrupy but not quite, med to a bit lighter foamy carb, light warming alcohol

Overall pretty good barleywine, not amazing, doesn't come close to original swordfish, but still pretty tasty. I'd be interested to see how it ages, but even more so if they threw some on a barrel, maybe a brandy or cognac barrel would suit this