I'm having the wonderful experience of visiting Barreled Souls in Maine. This is my second time visiting, and there are plenty of great beers on tap and on their in-house bottle list. This is Extended Age Reap what you Sow. A rye-wine aged for nearly two years in some rare Elijah Craig 23-year-old barrels. 15.9% ABV. Fantastic beer.
Round Guys (Lansdale, PA) - Barrel Aged Nautical Disaster Probabaly 5 years old, been in my fridge awhile, no date. Rixh caramel and boozy oak.
Enjoying a local traditional English Barleywine from Zebulon in Weaverville, NC. This is dedicated to the Godfather of Asheville Brewing, Oscar Wong who recently passed away and founded Highland Brewing back in the 90's. Without Oscar, Asheville would not have grown to be "Beer City". Burnt brown sugar, intense caramel, and raisins dominate the flavor. Always fun to have a Mike Karnowski historical recipe. Cheers! Tom
Monolith from Bissell Brothers in Maine. Grabbed this earlier today when I was in Portland. English barleywine aged for 13 months in bourbon barrels. This is batch #5 from 2026. 13.8% ABV. The taste is magical. This reminds me a bit of the best days of Pelican's MoaS and Firestone's Sucaba. Just a classic English barleywine aged in bourbon. Bursting with notes of toffee, bourbon, vanilla, oak, plums, figs, maple, honey, brown sugar, a hint of cinnamon, and cake batter. The mouthfeel is medium to thick, with a wonderfully balanced aftertaste of toffee, bourbon, and vanilla. These must have been really active barrels, as there is so much flavor imparted by them. Overall, one of the best barleywines I have had in the last couple of years.
Revolution Rum BA V.S.O.J. English Barleywine, 13.5% ABV. Pours very deep brown/black with a light-brown ring of bubbles. Aroma is sweet rum, dark fruit, oak, and toffee/caramel. Taste follows, plus moleasses, moderately sweet, faintly bitter. Thick mouthfeel, decent carbonation, overall world-class. My two favorite things, RBA and English Barleywine. 4.69/5 rDev +4.2% look: 4.5 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.75 The glass just barely holds the whole stovepipe.
Central Waters Brewing Brewers Reserve Barrel-Aged Barleywine 4-Year-Aged. 2026. This is the sweet spot.
I'm drinking a 16oz can of 2025 Chocolate Willy from Fifth Ward in Oshkosh WI. 10.5% Canned 11/10/25 A barley wine aged in the barrel 3 years and 9 months. Has cocoa nibs added. Look very dark brown/black body, no light passes thru. Short fine creamy head that hung on briefly leaving a micro amount of lacing. Smell is smooth chocolate almost no alcohol. Taste is chocolate and more chocolate, fudge, hint of caramel, some vanilla on the finish. After it warms up you get some smooth bourbon in the finish and in the after taste which hangs on for a while. Smooth beer that is sweet but not too sweet, there is a layer of mildly bitter/ dry bakers chocolate in it. Almost no booze heat, just a touch after it warmed up. Feel is smooth, medium thickness, not thin. Nice beer you have let it warm up, if you drink it too cold all you get is chocolate at first. It's for chocolate lovers that's for sure. Not the most complex beer. I will give it. a 4.21/5 https://untappd.com/b/fifth-ward-brewing-company-chocolate-willy/6490898
DANG! We need to try to coordinate next time to are in Saco! i was in Colorado last week , so definitely not a match this time. But would be great to meetup and drink some big Barreled Souls treats!
Cross posted this in the New Beer Weekend thread. Im back in Connecticut after our trip to Colorado. thanks to those who provided some guidance on breweries etc. this is actually from Strange Craft Beer Company in Denver, was walkable from our hotel, so easy to fit in. This is their Dr Strangelove Barleywine, a 12% brew that I picked up in these cool twistoff crowler "cans". onto my review: Sampling a 12 oz crowler twist off can , purchased at the brewery 4 days ago. Interesting twist off cap container, I like it, remained its seal during a flight , so kudos to the gear from Strange Craft! The beer pours a crystal clear chestnut color with very dense, fine creamy khaki colored head of about 1 cm. This foam slowly fades to a strong edging with one large island in the center of my glass. Aroma on this beer is very balanced, I get some toffee and caramel mixing with hints of raisin and then a decent hit of citrus rind hops. Not really fusol or boozy even with the higher octane. First sip reveals a medium to lighter body with smooth texture and very fine and gentle carbonation. there is just a little sticky feel on the swallow. No warming or heat on the finish as this beer is a dangerously easy drinker. Flavor is as balanced as the nose advertised. I get some toffee and hints of raisin and plums, then a drying hop bite with citrus rind dominant. Finish is sort of astringent, and Im not sure if its hops or the ABV to be honest. This is a very drinkable barleywine even with the double digit ABV. I wish I had bought two of these bottles/crowlers, as I enjoy the straightforward flavor profile on this brew. Worth a grab if in Denver! 4.22 in the BA DB
@sulldaddy It would be awesome to schedule a BA meetup around a member Monday since they have special pours on those days (and whiskey). It would be great to get a list of BAs that are also members at BS.
There was a thread for Barreled Souls releases in the New England forum. Maybe I can go dust that thing off and do a mic check?? Although Mondays are definitely tougher for me as its an overnight trip to get there for me. But well worth it!!
This 2023 Sucaba has lots of charred toffee and caramel, a nice change of pace from the sweet barleywines I love so much.
Kros Strain Barrelywine Volume 10 Williquors 2yr BBA English Barleywine, 13% ABV. I rated this 4.67 two years ago. They had them on the shelf at Williquors for at least 18 months, and I bet I bought at least twenty-five of them. I've got one left.
Look what I found in my beer fridge. This was packaged 7/13/23 and is my last can. It is drinking SPECTACULARLY, with the mango, guava, and passion fruit providing balance to the heft (15.04% ABV) of this BA barleywine. World class stuff, IMHO.
Thomas Hardy's Ale Appearance: Clear amber, small head that fades out into a ring around the glass. Smell: Slightly sour smell, like a kettle sour, not much else. Taste: Moderately sweet to start, then mild caramel, earthiness, leather. Medium bodied. The sourness from the smell makes a short appearance in the finish, otherwise the finish is mild caramel. Overall: A beer I’ve been curious about for many years, I finally pulled the trigger and bought a 2024 bottle. The smell is strange, like almost infected, but happily the sourness doesn’t really show in the taste. The taste is a little milder than I expected, the beer seems older than 2 years—not particularly sweet, but not very complex either. Worth a try.
