Origins of Life
3rd Planet Brewing

Tasted from a 500 ml bottle bought at the brewery, poured into a snifter. The bottle label proclaims "Barleywine aged in Cosmic Origins barrels", and "2022 Release". Cosmic Origins is this brewery's signature Imperial Stout, which they age in Bourbon barrels for a year and then add cinnamon and vanilla.

L - Medium brown color with some red highlights, but appearance is murky and almost opaque. This is a fairly common effect of barrel aging. Thick, rocky, light tan head on pour, but it quickly fades away entirely, with just a thin ring around the glass remaining. Interestingly, as I let the beer warm in the glass and took my time drinking it, it cleared and became a much more attractive deep brown with good clarity, so I revised my Look score up.

S - Aromas are dominated by barrel impressions, with lots of oak and charcoal, but no spirits character, such as Bourbon. The typical barleywine malt aromas show through as well, with molasses, bread and prunes. No hops or yeast notes stand out.

T - Flavors are a blend of typical barleywine maltiness and some barrel notes. The malt gives chocolate, prunes, raisins. The barrels seem to provide low vanilla and cinnamon, but mostly massive oak and some singed wood or smoke flavors. Hops might give a light earthy note, or that might just be a byproduct of slight oxidation in the aged beer.

F - Thick body with some mouth-coating sweetness and a slight silkiness. Carbonation is slight, but is there. Has enough hops bitterness that it is not too syrupy, but certainly it skews to the malt sweetness, with hops bitterness purely in the background. The alcohol is well hidden and does not make a significant part of the character.

O - This beer is a sweet, malty interpretation of the English Barleywine style and it does not seem to have been dried out much by aging in a second-use whiskey barrel that had already aged stout. I enjoy this style, but even for me, this one is verging on too sweet and mouth-coating. It seems like an interesting barrel experiment to me, but not necessarily a huge success.