Old No. 6
Future Primitive Brewing Company

Future Primitive Old No. 6 Barrel Aged American Barleywine 2023, 11% ABV. Blended from six years of BA barleywines. Pours reddish-brown with a half-finger beige head that left little lacing. Aroma is sweet stone? fruit, toffee, and bourbon. Taste is toffee, fruit, slightly sweet, quite bitter, some bourbon burn. Dry mouthfeel, overall excellent.

Hooboy this is a full throttle BA barleywine right here! Tons of brash caramel and brown sugar sweetness up front to go along with lots of smooth booze. Some dried cherries in there as well. The finish is an absolute kick in the teeth, aspirin bitterness, hot booze, and oaky char all linger after the fiery exhale. Hard to believe some of this is 6 years old. Just what I needed, thanks Ryan!

Poured into a Fremont small snifter. Pours a medium to dark coppery red with a fine, one finger light khaki with great retention and solid lacing. Aroma of caramel malt, light stone fruit, plum and figs with a hint of lemon citrus and hops. Flavor is caramel malt, dried light stone fruit, raisins lemon and light to moderate grassy hop bitterness in the finish. Medium bodied with moderate creaminess, nice mouth feel. Although I enjoyed the last two vintage, aged versions of this, I'm glad I'm drinking this right away; it is quite pleasant. This one has some English quality in dark fruit, but also the light stone fruit and some citrus expected in an American version, as well a a fairly sturdy hop bitterness. Although was is the current years (2024) canning, it is dated 2023, so probably using the barreling date. Not getting much bourbon like the older ones, but the fruit flavors are stellar. Having sworn off long cellaring, I'm now curious how this will taste in one year, so I'm going to cellar one. This was blended from six years of barleywines but has not oxidation notes. I'm quite impressed with this I may be a quarter point too low on my taste rating.