Over the River, Under the Moon
Ruse Brewing

On tap at the Horse Brass. Colour is opaque dark brown with just a wisp of a tan head. On the nose is black currant, Italian prunes, medjool dates, bourbon soaked oak and dark amber maple syrup. On the palate, this is instantly boozy! The ethanol warms and volatises rapidly and then waves of baked prunes, dark raisins, Christmas pudding, maple candies and bourbon washes over the whole palate. This is cloying to start and then a tannic like astringence hits the mid and back palate , tempering the sweetness. Whereas I've had beers of higher ABV, this one's headiness is profound from stem to stern, but does not distract from the aforementioned flavours. This is quite the sipper and warming on a chilly November eve.

 

Poured into a Fremont small snifter. Pours a very dark mahogany brown, appearing nearly opaque in the glass with a thin khaki head that dissipates to patches with light lacing. Aroma of caramel malt, dry caramel, dates, raisins, bourbon and a little maple syrup. Flavor is dry caramel malt, dates, raisins, dried plums, bourbon and maple syrup; mild hop bitterness in the finish with lingering caramel, fruit and maple. Medium bodied with moderate creaminess. American style barleywines are rare these days and even when more commonly brewed, ranged from a hoppy take on an English barleywine to a type that overlapped the triple IPA, with dense malt and lots of IPA style bitterness. This one is the former style and I didn't realize how much I missed it. Ruse used a light touch with the hops so they are not that noticeable in the initial taste, perhaps due to the density of the other flavors, but pop out in the finish without being dominating. The base barleywine is great, with a deep caramel malt and excellent dried fruit notes. Both the bourbon and maple are clear flavors, but in harmony with the base and each other. My favorite thing here is the hops, which are present, but mellow. I stopped cellaring American style barleywines because the aged hop flavor was not to my taste, but the lighter hop presence here would probably handle aging gracefully. I wish I had picked up a couple more of these, I think this would be very interesting in a year or so. Ironically I'm drinking it right away to prevent hop ageing, which I doubt now would be an issue. This is a wonderful barleywine, I really like it.