Old Johnny Sawdust
Valley House Brewing

Poured from a growler into a Fremont small snifter. Pours a lightly hazy, medium to dark caramel orange with a fine, one finger off-white head with great retention and solid lacing. Aroma of caramel malt, light dried stone fruit and mild citrus hops; somewhat subdued. Flavor is caramel malt, toffee, dried light stone fruit, black pepper, fig concentrate; mild hop bitterness; light rye whiskey in the finish. Medium bodied with moderate to heavy body; pleasant mouth feel. A quite caramel forward barleywine with clear notes of the flavor of those cubical, chewy caramel candies. The base malt leans heavily to English style, but also has nice light dried fruit character too, but with mild hop bitterness. Sits somewhere between American and English styles. The barrel character is mellow and shows up mostly in the finish. A unique take on the style where the hops jump in late in the finish, but the overall effect is good. Definitely for caramel malt fans and as one, I liked this quite a bit. I was pleasantly surprised by both beers I got here. Nicely done.

Great Barley Wine! 11.3 %abv, beautiful light orange color. Barrel on the nose. Perfect mix of apricot fruit leather, spice, rye whiskey, and oak.