Selected Visions
Forest & Main - The Brewery

The brown bottle once held 16.9 fluid ounces, now completely emptied. The brew resides temporarily inside a clear glass liter mug. The single pour was foamy, but not excessively so. Now visible, the liquid shows brown in color, almost as dark as the bottle. It's dull and opaquely cloudy. Its head, which appears to be sustaining, is very light biege, carrying only a tint of the brew's color. A pronounced aroma became obvious upon opening the bottle and grew stronger once the pour was completed. It's a complex bouquet with malt, hops, alcohol, tannins and even a hint of candied fruit. There's complexity to the taste as well. Initially, it's very sweet, as those references of malt and candied fruit are first noticed. Then, there's a good hit of alcohol followed by the tannins, which dry out, then bitter the finish. No doubt, the hops contribute, also, but tannins in beers always seem to become a dominating taste. All these flavors and transitions are delicious and reasonably balanced. As much as they take over the taste, the tannins almost always contribute to the mouthfeel. They often add body and smoothness, like they do here. In this case, the high ABV can be tasted, but it doesn't detract from the body, mouthfeel, nor overall taste. Like most brews with this amount of ABV, there's no glass lacing. Although mitigated by a drier and more bitter finish, the high ABV, very sweet opening and strong presence of tannins, make this is an obvious sipper and probably best as an after dinner dessert.

Murky dark cider brown with a light tan head that settles into a crown and leaves spots of lacing. Fig, plum, coconut, vanilla and rum in the nose. Similar taste with some great light piney bitterness and light alcohol heat. Full, creamy feel with light carbonation. Tasty. Best barleywine from them I’ve had.