Barleywine Appreciation Thread (2025)

I’m posting this here and the Imperial Stout thread: 2SP “Bronson “ Barleywine & Imperial Stout Blend!

 

Man, no posts since Saturday...

Cross post from WBAYDN
Having a Cigar City BA ABW collaboration with Coppertail Brewing also out of Tampa. This brew was aged in Rum barrels. Acquired from Cigar City January 2024.

The nose was very good as i got a nice toffee and some vanilla from the barrel. Taste is toffee dominated with some dark fruit in post sip aspirations. Barrel nuance not as prevalent as the vanilla was lightly present with the rum dominating on the back end.
Nothing ventured nothing gained as they say. BA Barleywines are pretty rare so thought it was worthy of a shot for $19. Overall rated 4.04.
Cheers!
Tom

 

Not sure that I can appreciate another Barleywine anymore than this one!

 

Free Will Dystopias American Strong Ale, 20.1% ABV. Pours blackish brown. It's a 'still' beer, so no carbonation or lacing. I'm drinking this at room temperature. Aroma is strong alcohol (!), sweet dark fruit, and chocolate. Taste is strong alcohol, then chocolate and dark fruit, moderately sweet, slightly bitter, lots of alcohol burn. Decent mouthfeel considering it's a still beer. Overall outstanding.

4.42/5 rDev +0.2%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.5

This is review # 2,000 for me, thanks to @Ozzylizard for generously sharing this with me in a LIF box as part of the Stout/Barleywine BIF. In the next week or two I'll do a side-by-side with Utopias.

 

Here we have Smooth Criminal, an English barleywine (one of my favorite styles) from the Bruery—preliminary review below. Pretty good stuff. Cheers!

4.18/5 rDev +3.2%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

750mL bottle (2024 vintage) into a tulip. Pours a slightly hazy (possibly chill hazed) honey/amber with a thin beige head that settles quickly to a wispy film.

Aroma is fruity, malty, and sweet. Bready caramel malt, vanilla, brown sugar and vague spice notes.

Taste leads off with some bourbon-soaked dates and toffee/brown sugar with a subtle hoppy bitterness in the back. I don’t always notice this but the quality of the water is evident here with a pronounced clean mineral character.

Mouthfeel is on the medium side and this beer goes down easy.

Overall a really nice barleywine, highly drinkable, perhaps dangerously so at 12.5% (not the 15% listed here as of 6/29/2025).

 

Tree House: Tree of Grace.
Barleywine aged 1 year in bourbon barrels, then another year in rum barrels. Been sitting on it for about 6 months, but opened it for the birthday weekend. At 15.5% it could probably go for 10 years, but didn’t want to wait. It’s really good, but would be ideal to split as it’s extremely syrupy. Huge butterscotch, toffee, caramel. Can taste the rum and feel the heat on the back end. Ideally I would have bought 2 and aged one for a few years, but at $28 I couldn’t do it

 

Enjoying a 2025 Bigfoot. Seems the last few years i have only bought a sixer to enjoy throughout the year. My old tasting group will pay the SNBC premium for the cellared Bigfoot releases. It has been a while so i may need to pick up the next cellar release which will prolly be late this year.
Cheers!
Tom

 

Hey Tim, I'm still around! I kind of hit a wall with alcohol of late, I just don't crave it much right now.
I'll chime in with something at some point, cheers!

 

Hope to score some Temporal @Beersnake, yours sounds wonderful!

Yea, i have been wondering about @DIM. With summer here, and youngsters in the house that will grow up way too quickly, i get the whole taking a break thing. Winter is coming though!

I am enjoying a really nice collaboration picked up at Cigar City January 2024 with Green Bench located across the bay in St. Petersburg. This is aged in Maple Rum and Brandy Barrels. I was worried it would be way to sweet, but the cellar masters did a fine job overall. Definitely got a lot of caramel and toffee not to mention the dark fruits. Not hot at all like rum barrels tend to be, this was an easy sipper at 12.4% abv. Overall rated 4.41.
Cheers!
Tom

 

Cheers

 

Tree House Goodness:

 

I absolutely love Fremont’s English barleywines and this one is no exception. Brew 8000. It’s just so damn good. Preliminary review below. Cheers!

4.47/5 rDev -0.7%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

22oz bottle into a tulip. Pours a murky brownish mahogany with a silky khaki head.

Aroma is fruity and complex with dried, bourbon-soaked dates and figs, caramel, toffee, brown sugar, and vanilla. Classic English barleywine qualities.

Taste is equally complex with many of the same characteristics.

What gets me most here is the mouthfeel. It’s smooth and slick with a nice boozy warming finish. There’s nothing harsh about this 13% beer and it goes down super easy.

Overall another home run in the Brew X000 lineup, one of my favorite series of Fremont beers. Stellar stuff.

 

Founders Iced Latte KBS American Strong Ale, 11% ABV. Pours copper with a two-finger off-white head that left foamy lacing. Aroma is coffee, chocolate, bourbon, and vanilla. Taste follows, moderately sweet, slightly bitter. OK mouthfeel, overall very good. KBS=Kentucky Breakfast Stout. No stout here, Founders!

3.91/5 rDev -3.5%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75

I only got this because I always try KBS variants, but suckspected I wouldn't care for it, so didn't buy a pack. It didn't totally suck, but I'm highly disappointed they'd slap a KBS label on it. Tick.

 

How is it holding up? I had one fresh and another about a year later, and fresh was my preference

 

I might boycott KBS in its entirety for this release. Can’t stand the cheap marketing trick of sticking the label of your flagship beer on a completely different style