Barleywine Appreciation Thread (2024)

That’s because you didn’t look at the right list. Meantime is being treated as the contract facility in this case. You’ll find the existing place for that beer if you search for the beer name. You should report your review as a duplicate entry to have your listing totally removed and your review moved.

 

Revolution Apple Brandy V.S.O.R. (two year aged ryewine in apple brandy and French oak barrels). Maple, apple reduction, Werther’s Originals, creme brûlée, toffee, some apricot, some raisin bread, some rye spice, and charred oak. Love apple brandy aged beers and the apple brandy treatment on this goes very well with the base ryewine. Revolution delivers again! Fantastic.

 

It wasn’t awful. I finished the bottle, but you could tell something just wasn’t right. Either that or the 2020 was an off year (never had it fresh). I’ll just chalk it up to 2020 being a shit show overall

 

Crystal Lake's BBA Barleywine from 2018, I haven't seen this in a couple of years and have been told they haven't brewed this in awhile, don't know why, IMHO this hits all the checkmarks, oaky, boozy, some caramel/toffee and dark fruit. Good stuff.

 

What other Deep Wood beers do you have on hand? Regardless of the answer, I can't imagine you'll be disappointed by any of them, Revolution's big beers are world class

 

Had the Dread and Breakfast over the weekend. It was tremendous. Also have Deth's Star (2023), Life Jacket, and Deth by Currants.

 

Most current version, canned November of 2023. Not quite as good as the first run or the OG but damn good. Cinnamon, vanilla, mild barrel in the finish along with a good amount of deep orange candy. Glad I splurged on these.


Enjoy

 

Shortfuse #1 BBA Barleywine, a couple of yrs old, not as harsh as I remembered, haven't seen it since.....

 

Was so mad this didn't land around here (or at least I never saw it). Definitely sounds like something I would like. They need to do some more classic barrel aged bigfoot again...

 

This was mail order only. Second time it was released in the last few years.


Enjoy

 

Well that explain it. There was a good amount of "Trip in the Woods" from 2019 around here. Wish I bought more than one bottle of that one. It was a blend of different barrel aged bigfoot vintages. Very good

 

I bought a bottle of Vanilla Awn from Millpond a while back and never got around to opening it. Aged 17 months in Heaven Hill barrels then conditioned on vanilla beans.



The aroma is very enticing, with the vanilla invitingly intertwined amongst caramel, strong bourbon, and faint, woody cinnamon. Wonderful.

The taste doesn't quite measure up to the smell unfortunately. Up front decadent vanilla and smooth booze work well together along with caramel and faint raisin but the finish things out with a bit too much bitter, earthy wood.

Worth trying overall but I don't need to revisit.

 

Cellarmaker / Private Press Hard Cuts

Evening, BAs. A few months back I found myself in San Francisco right after Toronado’s barleywine festival. Lucky for me, there was still a metric shit ton of BiL still available, at least half a shit ton of which, I took advantage of. I had highly sought after BiLs from Revolution, Cellarmaker, Perennial, Monkish and others. The one that stood head-and-shoulders above them all was Private Press’ Open Drums Munichwine. So, when I saw a Barleywine/Munichwine cuvée from Private Press for sale from a popular online beer seller, I had to pull the trigger.

Hard Cuts pours a dark, ruddy brown with a thin khaki head that quickly settles into a wisp and crown.

Thick dark caramel, vanilla and toffee candies jump out in the nose.

Caramel and molasses continue up front in the taste, joined by some jammy and complex port wine sweetness. They’re cut only slightly in the finish by clear rye pepperiness and a mildly bitter aftertaste.

The beer’s very thick bodied, but still with some zippy carbonation cutting through.

Maybe this isn’t quite to the level of what I remember from Toronado, but it is still very, very good. Great flavor profile, including distinctive rye character, coupled with a hefty mouthfeel. I’ll definitely seek out more from these folks.

 

That must have been magnificent, glad you got to experience that.