Redwood 5th Anniversary BA
Humble Forager Brewery

Humble Forager Redwood 33mo BBA English Barleywine, 14% ABV. Pours thick and black with a slight ring of brown bubbles. Aroma is incredible and complex, bourbon, sweet dark fruit, caramel, rum, chocolate, and spices. Taste follows, dark fruit prevailing, quite sweet, faintly bitter, pleasantly light bourbon burn. Mouthfeel is thick, lightly carbonated, leaves sticky lips. Overall world class, the best barleywine I've reviewed.

Finally breaking this bad boy out, the last of the anniversary set... pours cola brown with a brief but fading tan head. Cola notes with fig off the bat. Very boozy. Sort of cherry cola in flavor. Raisins. Dark fruit lingers throughout. Good sweet caramel/toffee and bourbon balance. Brown sugar coming out more with repeated efforts. Heavy in body, of course, but delightfully smooth. Plenty of spice and other qualities to boot.

 

 

Blackish brown opaque pour with a tan head. Smells of gooey rich caramel with big bourbon, lending molasses and raisin to the spotlight, barley and toffee round out. Taste is just a rich barleywine barrel aged experience: caramel, toffee, and golden raisin with big bourbon and I swear rum barrel with molasses emphasis coating the dates and regular raisins, with brown sugar, barley and a touch of fallen honeycomb. Sweeter but kept in check with massive barrels. This feel is a sipper as a result, yet decant, smooth, warming, and chewy. The wife liked it

 

2025-03-28
6oz pour at Windsor Homebrew.

Dark, murky, small off-white head, looks thick. Smell is big and boozy, nuts and toffee, alcohol and oak, barrel. Hint of char and horehound. Taste is cola and not-quite-maple syrup. Sweet and boozy. Raisins and dates and figs. Vanilla, creamy. Mouthfeel is thick and smooth, barely evading heavy or sticky. Very nice.