Barley Barge
Jackie O's Taproom & Brewery

English style barleywine poured into a jelly jar and left to warm to room temperature. Neither head nor lacing in this dark bodied beer.

Wonderful aroma from the barrel, sweet bourbon and dark fruits.

Taste follows nose with an accentuation of the dark fruits flavor - plums, fig, raisins - adding a depth of flavor. Finish has a sweet honey, maple and caramel sweetness. The ABV is only hinted at in flavor.

Heavy mouthfeel is satisfying despite the absence of carbonation.

American barleywine fans steer clear. English fans belly up to the bar as this one's for you.

Bourbon Barrel Barley Barge from Jackie O’s. 12.7 fl oz capped bottle. Picked up from Jackie O’s online, Athens, OH, date unknown. Reviewed 08/02/25 (Review 3451). Note that I use DD/MM/YY protocol.
Undated bottle. Stored at 39 degrees F at home. Served at 53.7 degrees F in a hand washed and dried Jester King snifter. The final temperature was 56.4 degrees F.
Appearance – 4
First pour – Deep Amber (SRM 15), clear.
Body – Brown (SRM 20), opaque. Under direct light, milk chocolate brown and large chunks of precipitate are visible. When rear-lite, amber at the edges.
Head: None (Aggressive center pour), just a brief 0.2 cm bubble ring. Gone almost instantly, leaving only a partial ring of tiny but active bubbles.
Lacing – None
Aroma – 4.5 – Smooth bourbon hits first, followed by generic “dark fruits”. No hops, no yeast, no ethanol (12.6 % ABV, as marked on label). No disulfide or diacetyl.
Flavor – 4.5 – Begins sweet with distinctly smooth bourbon. No yeast, no hops, no ethanol. No disulfides, no diacetyl. Mild gastric warming initially, but it builds.
Palate – 4 – Full; bordering on syrupy; soft carbonation.
Style: Follows the style guidelines as condensed by BA.
Final impression and summation: 4 (After deducting 0.25 point for an undated personal container) Distinctly lacks the hoppiness of American style Barleywines – smooth, sweet, and easy drinking. The bourbon is subdued on the palate and the barrels fail to make an appearance. Well worth whatever I paid.

Picked up a 2022 bottle from the brewery on 5-24-23 for $15.99. Consumed for review 4-19-24.

Beer poured dark brown with a nice off-white head with the original pour.

Nose is very nice with dark fruits being front and center with the bourbon right behind.

Taste is nicely blended as i with the malt base i am getting chocolate, toffee, and honey. Over top i am getting a touch of vanilla with the barrel lending a hand on balancing the sweetness.

Mouthfeel is medium bodied and very smooth.

Overall a really enjoyable blend!

 

Thanks to CarolinaCardinals for sending this to me in the debut round of Barleywine/Stout BIF #1
Pours a deep, very deep, dark brown color. A frothy tan head pumps 2 fingers high, and slowly settles in to a form cap. More retention than expected for style. Moderate lacing.
Nose is a firm and forward Bourbon dominated sweetness. Yes, there is the dates, figs, and caramel notes, but Bourbon grabs the spotlight.
Flavor follows suit. Bourbon forward. Followed by dates, figs, raisin, caramel, candy sugar, and what seems like some earthy , almost resiny, hop note. Almost a nod to an American style BW for a moment. As it warms I get some barrel woody barrel notes akin to a deep red wine or port.
Mouthfeel is but hefty, which I can enjoy, but more active than I prefer in a barleywine. It's almost prickly with carbonation.
Overall, a good, Bourbon forward barleywine with a LOT going on. Maybe my bottle was a slight fluke on the carbonation but otherwise pretty solid.

In a world of hops, pastry and sour, the backbone of beer often gets overlooked. But with Jackie O's and Permanent Hangover in charge, here comes barley barging right in!

Brewed in the classic British Barleywine style then aged in bourbon barrels, Barley Barge showcases its barley focus with a deep garnet hue, slightly hazy and glowing with a deep and foggy gaze. With its sweet and savory aromas of toffee, caramel and maple flowing over dark fruit, sherry, whisky and spice hovering over a dainty skirt of froth, the first sip looms with those deeply caramelized toffee, caramel, vanilla, maple and molasses sweetness from malt.

Applying a rich coat of those grain sugars across the middle palate, the savory sweetness lays a malty foundation that melds exceptionally well with the dried fruits of dates, raisins, prune and fig in a condensed, stewed and pleasantly oxidized sherry and madeira kind of way. Toasted oak and whisky spice warms up the gullet in a tepid balance as the session heads into the later portions of taste.

Full bodied, pleasantly cloying and relegated as a slow sipping affair, this collaboration barleywine is a nearly ideal balance of British tradition and newer barrel aged upgrades. It extends long and plush with booze soaked malt in a highly digestive fashion.

Look - basically black and thick with a nice tan head rimming and lacing
Smell - woody caramel bourbon fig prune
Taste - fig, prune, slight sweet date, caramel, woody, a little bourbon, some honey
Feel - full body with a lighter carb that has a slight tingle
Overall - complex and delicious

Poured at fridge temp into a Jackie O's snifter. Pours dark brown (almost black) with pretty much zero head. The nose might be one of the best noses on a barleywine in quite some time. Rich toffee, plums, blackberries, vanilla, maple, a soft chocolate note, and a nice layer of brown sugar. Dang!!

The taste phenomenal. Again there is the rich gooey toffee, plus maple, brown sugar, raisins, prunes, vanilla, chocolate, and honey. Sooooo good. The mouthfeel is thick and viscous, with almost no carbonation. The aftertaste is rich toffee all the way.

 

 

More days without stout. Anyone else ever get stout fatigue? It’s real! Hence a 12.7 oz. bottle of barleywine, again.

The pour is very dark (black barleywine anyone?) with almost no head. Looks like you could skate on it. This baby breathes bourbon & brown sugar into my nose.

Barley Barge – they missed the middle “B” for “Bourbon”. BBB. Strong barrel inches from my face is complemented by the aforementioned brown sugar, & there’s a lot of it. Mild alcohol burn in the chest cavity. Maple syrup, leather, caramel meld to form something interesting &, daresay I, close to unique. Bitingly dry on the finish. This is a b-wine that should come in one of those head buckets with a crazy straw leading to my mouth.

These Jackie O’s people been making beer long? j/k. This is a top shelf barleywine – balanced but aggressive with a big truckload of bourbon. Excellent beer that’s close to the elite level. Wow.

 

Description: Dark brown to black with no material head or bubbles. Has a smooth, still appearance. Smell is bourbon and oak. It's a little "hot", like you can smell the alcohol. Also roasted and dark chocolate notes. Taste is nice...very nice. It's semi-sweet to start with dark chocolate throughout and a sweeter finish. Feel is smooth, thick and creamy, like a stout.

Overall: 4.5 (This beer is very good and I would definitely drink it again) Flavors are balanced and rich. This drinks like a stout and is a strong beer all around.

Oh my this is decadent. Honey drips over everything, including notes of cocoa, leather, toffee, and a hint of apricot. The honey and cocoa work especially well together, reminding of a candy bar whose name escapes me. The carbonation is low and the body lush. One of the best barleywines I've had from a brewery that does them exceedingly well.