Unplugged Iced Barleywine
New Glarus Brewing Company

Bottle at share, courtesy of Toby. Dark brown pour with small, spotty head. Aroma is woody, leathery. Taste brings a hint of sweetness. Dry, chalky.

 

This got stuck in the back of my aging shelf. I would normally not let it sit for 8 years, but it's held up surprisingly well.

Poured deep red-brown mahogany color, with little to no carbonation. Light lacing on the initial pour, but it's pretty low on carbonation.

Smells of dark caramel, toffee, some vinous well aged sherry and lightly fruity notes. I don't detect any alcohol notes despite being 13.5%.

The taste is malty, dark fruit, caramel, toffee, fig, raisins, a little cherry perhaps. It's really smooth actually. The hop bitterness has aged out, leaving a sweet smooth liquid.

The mouthfeel is big and thick, but very smooth at this point. No alcohol warmth, a bit slick, but goes down easy.

Overall, I'm really impressed with this and how well it's held up over 8 years. Normally I would have had this quite a long time ago. This has held up impressively well. It seems some of the booziness and heat previous reviewers have mentioned are long gone. I hope I find another bottle or two of this.

12oz bottle into a wine glass appears a chestnut brown with ruby clarity. A khaki cap rises up less than a finger strong and quickly fades back leaving spotty lace.

Aroma has primarily solvent alcohol and herbal to fruity character. Slight pine aspect.

Taste is bitter and big with solvent booziness. A little tannic/astringent with almost an oakiness to it and lingering herbal to pine-like resinous bitterness.

Medium in body with light carbonation. Quite solvent despite being 8 years old. Feels more american than english in nature. Interesting and glad I got the chance to try it but yikes, this could use another 8 years aging.

 

 

 

 

 

 

poured 12oz bottle into chalice. Bottled back in Feb 2009.

A - Dark brown coffee color with a thin 1 finger sandy head. . Decent head retention and some lacing.

S - Malts, caramel, toffee, dark fruits, and earthy hops. I also notice the booze..

T - Still boozy, with dark fruits even citrus, caramel, toffee, with some burnt sugar and even cola.

M - Medium bodied and still decent carbonation given the age.

O - A good BW, but not quite top tier.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nice lacing and they nailed the color. Dark fruits, caramel, booze, candy sugar, oxidation on the nose. Taste follows the nose plums raisins alcohol complementary oxidation to an aged barley wine. Medium carbonation and works with the style. I love aged barlywine's and this is a good one but the heat from the alcohol keeps this from getting a very good rating. Would drink again if I had another one.