Batch 1000 Barley Wine
Pumphouse Brewery

 

 

A bottle left over after GABF judging and given to me as a reward for my volunteer efforts. Pours a finger of light brown head over a brilliant browned copper liquid. Smells like regular-flavored Bubble Yum chewing gum. Pine, resin, tropical fruity, woody, and moderate clean alcohol sting.

Tastes wet sweet with noticeable hop flavor and mild hop bitter. Desert beer, which falls within my liking, but is not to style as an American Barley Wine. Malt is non-descript sweet and accompanied by strong fruity esters of pear, tame plum meat, berry, red apple meat, belgian candi-sugar, and light brown sugar. Hop flavor is lemon and pine. Hop bitter is lightly grassy, but deeply buried beneath the sticky sweet. Alcohol sting is moderate and relatively clean. There is not enough hop bitter and and alcohol sting to overcome the overbearing cloying sweet of this beer. The beer is thick and sticky in the mouth, though alcohol does help. Okay for a sticky sweet beer lover, such as myself, on a cold winter eve. But, honestly, even too sweet for me, even tonight.