Cyclops Barrel-Aged Barleywine Ale
Elysian Brewing Company

From 2022 @13.6%, a ruddy reddish brown pour, lingering khaki head leaves a wee bit of lacing. Nose vanilla, coconut some booze. Taste buds like the fruit, figs and dates Smooth creamy texture, abv well hidden. Good, inexpensive too!

It’s the base Honda Accord of sippers. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, especially at its price point. You get a genuinely complex brew to sip over and the abv hits home. Just misses the mark if you’re looking for that wow factor. Overall you could do much worse than this, definitely worth a try.

Surprised to see this show up locally as we don't get much in the way of Elysian here...I had to grab a pack of it as I fo love a good English barleywine...and barrel aged to boot? Yes please..

Toffee...caramel....bread pudding...raisins...a touch of barrel...all present in the aroma and flavors of the beer....it's not overly sweet although there is a measured amount of sweetness to it... it's a sipper as the barrel becomes more and more prevalent throughout the duration of the glass... it's not at all distracting but it definitely lets you know it's been in a barrel...

I will purchase this until it's gone as I like it...it's very solid...

2021 bottle
This is big and boldly assertive but I wouldn't have guessed 15%! Lots of sticky caramel and sweet, sweet bourbon plus, candied oranges, sugary dates, and faint cherry at the back end. This barleywine is ridiculously drinkable, I could easily finish this monster in 15 minutes! "Crushable" is NOT supposed to be a barleywine word but...damn, I wish I would have saved this for the beach next week! I love that this is packaged in regular ol' 12oz bottles. Lucky are the folks who can buy this by the pack.

Poured at just over fridge temp. Pours a murky brown/orange with minimal head. The nose is really interesting. Toffee, orange peel, plums, malts, and raisins.

The taste is great. Malty, boozy, raisins, plums, orange, toffee, bourbon, citrus peel, earthy, grassy, and a candy sweetness. Although it's boozy, it doesn't taste like 15% ABV to me. More like 11% or so.

Mouthfeel is medium bodied with a fairly sweet aftertaste. This is a great beer, and I could see this aging extremely well.

2021 bottling of Elysian's Cyclopes Barrel-Aged Barleywine Ale. Wait for it....Alc 15% by volume, experience by 16nov26.

12oz served in a pint glass. Beer is brown and significantly cloudy. Aroma is a bit rich and prune-y. Flavor is sweet, but pleasantly slow, with flavors of coconut, vanilla, candied plum, golden syrup. Mouthfeel is a bit on the lighter (boozy) side, and finish is a bit dry (tannic?). The sweetness is a bit overpowering and detracts from the complexity I think must be there. I would really like to taste more malt and less sugar in this. Unfortunately I don't think sweetness mellows out with aging.... but maybe. Anyway, this is delicious, but 100% a hangover in a bottle.

Very sweet and bitter. Strong alcohol taste. Fruity. Like a boosey fig dipped in unsweetened cocoa. Syrupy mouth feel. My first barleywine, reminiscent of some of the sweet bitterness of many good strong porters and winter ales, but without the balance. I normally love Elysian's beers, but I was not impressed by this one.

Wednesday, December 18, 2019 8:08 PM
12 ounce bottle to wine glass
Sight: dark amber reddish brown, minimal head, some lacing
smell: toasted grains
Taste: Bitter, Sweet, nice initial taste and follow through
Mouth feel: sticky
Overall: very good beer, ok to repeat, but not something to look forward to.

2019 vintage. Best by 4/4/24. 12oz bottle poured into a tulip. Pours an auburn/mahogany with ruby red hues; lots of sediment/floaties; small light khaki head that fades quickly leaving solid retention and lacing. The aromas are malt forward. Some vanilla and caramel. Hints of cherries and dark fruits. Some fresh bread. Some floral notes. The bourbon goes unnoticed in the aroma department. The flavors are bold. More caramel and vanilla along with some coconut. More dark fruits. There's a nice spiciness to this one. Some rye and black pepper in the mix. The bourbon does its thing. It definitely finishes hot and almost boozy, but it's not quite over the top. Moderate sweetness. Low bitterness. Malts do their thing. Mouthfeel is full-bodied with moderate carbonation. It's slick and smooth. This one makes for a nice sipper.

This is a pretty solid barleywine. It might be slightly rough around the edges at times, but everything ultimately works. The bourbon might not exactly shine, but it's simply a nice barleywine. It drinks pretty big, but in a good way. It's enjoyable and fun to drink. Not bad at all. I really like it.

Bottle from Brewers Haven. Dark, clear brown, head fades quickly. Aroma comes in boozy, sugary. Malty flavor, brown sugar, more booze. Plenty sweet, warm and strong.

Cyclops Barrel Aged Barleywine pours a brownish color, with a very very small head. Big rich sharp malty aroma, with big hints of barrel. Flavor is very earthy, very sharp malts, very very warm, with lots and lots of oak mixed in. Good body and feel. Overall, wow, very good barleywine, packed with flavor, and has a big bite.

I think this stuff is aptly named Cyclops because it'll have you doing the ol' one eyed squint after having enough of em. Pours deep brown with a glare of amber, no head and very little visible lacing. Large chunks of sediment float throughout like jellyfish in the ocean. It smells strongly of dried fruits and bourbon. Vanilla, cocoa, figs, dates and predominantly... you guessed it, bourbon. Flavor tastes are very prominent all the while being super smooth. It's lowly carbonated and pretty viscous in texture.

Sidenote - I got this ale in winter of 2019, it's "experience by" date was 4/4/24, about 5 years! I imagine a great ale to stash in a dark place and age it, but knowing me it'll be gone in a few days.

Side sidenote - for the staggering 15.1% ABV content, it doesn't totally knock your socks off like a shot of 80 proof. It's subtle, give it a little time and it'll whomp on you! If you like quality over quantity, this brew's for you.

 

this beer is sweet, malty and has a subtle bourbon character... three things that I love. I fully appreciate that this won't be everyone's cup of beer, but this combo appeals to me. drinking more than one of these would be a chore, but at 15% that's probably a good thing...

"Cyclops Barrel-Aged Barleywine Ale."

2019 vintage bottle. Brown glass with a black, white, and red label. Pry-off crown cap. "Experience by: 4/4/24." Ran $9.49 USD per 4 pack at a grocer in New Orleans, LA.

"Aged in retired bourbon barrels." 15.1% ABV. No mention of how long it spends in barrels appears on the label, nor does any mention of which bourbon producer the barrels were sourced from.

AROMA: Sweet. Dark fruit is the first thing I notice - fig, date, prune. Barrel sugars abound. Big caramel sweetness, brown malts, 2-row. Hints of toffee and vanillin. Leather.

Not as bourbon-evocative as would be ideal, and it lacks the richer bourbon notes I expect in a great bourbon barrel aged beer/barleywine (e.g. rich vanilla bean, coconut, toasted white oak).

Suggests a warm barleywine with only adequate complexity.

TASTE & TEXTURE: Rich and sweet, emphasizing dark fruits (fig, date) and caramel atop a 2-row, brown malt, and amber malt base. Notes of faint leather and cardboard indicate possible oxygenation.

The bourbon barrel character is there but not in spades. Not redolent of coconut, rich white oak, or vanilla...it just has a sad barrel sugar presence alongside obvious alcohol warmth.

Not as sweet as many trainwreck dessert beers, but still something of a chore to drink a full bottle of in a short sitting.

Coarse, a bit dry, unrefreshing, full-bodied, heavy on the palate. Well-carbonated for the style. This mouthfeel doesn't accentuate specific flavours or elevate the beer as a whole.

OVERALL: I don't know who'd buy this over their almost certainly superior local and regional expressions of the style, and I reckon it's on par with Sierra Nevada's Bigfoot - which is a beer I dislike, but at least it's cheaper. This either didn't spend enough time in bourbon barrels or the selected barrels weren't all that great (or both) given the relative lack of bourbon barrel flavour. Not that the base brings much to the table...this is a chore to drink but it doesn't quite taste as high in ABV as it is, so I guess it gets points for drinkability there. Just a low effort stab at a style that demands more, and not a brew I look forward to finishing 3 more bottles of. Poor work from Elysian, but it seems less an inspired brew and more a cash-in on the marketing potential of the words "bourbon barrel aged barleywine" slapped on a label. Certainly a post AB-InBev Elysian effort.

Low C (2.77) / AVERAGE

 

Somewhat aggressive pour into a snifter. Clear DEEP amber with a one finger off white head that immediately dropped to a ring and is leaving spotty lace. Fall weather ruins my already meager sense of smell..All I can smell here is obvious barrel aging..Maybe a hint of vanilla. Taste is dark fruits, sweet and slightly tart. The oak/bourbon flavor follows this with a lingering finish. Medium body with little carbonation. I hope Elysian makes this at least a seasonal offering. I love it! P.S. This is not a beer you down in 5 minutes..It's a sipper for us cultured types!