I was excited to try this American style Barleywine, as I also had a BA Owde Engwish, and it was enjoyed by all. I opened this at a rather large and informal tasting, and people were asking what style it was (prior to opening) and someone said with quite a bit of confidence that it was a BA-Sour or some sort. I injected that I thought it was a Barleywine, and I was reassured otherwise, and assumed this site was incorrect in their listing, or I just didn't remember correctly. Either way, it was opened last week, and the taste immediately made me believe my assessment of it being a Barleywine incorrect. With that said, it certainly didn't turn into a 'good' sour either. I don't think anyone really enjoyed it. I would venture to say it was one of the worst (of the 60 or so!) beers in attendance that day. I think "interesting" and "I don't know what to think of this" were the closest to "praise" this beer got. Based on the reviews, the beer certainly must have been infected. Anyone else notice this or open one recently? I didn't get the bottle-number, but perhaps someone has a picture from the tasting.
We opened one at a tasting and everyone had the same reaction and we had a tough time finishing the bottle between the 5 of us.
So it's purposely sour? This site claims it's an American Style Barleywine, and the reviews I looked at doesn't mention it being sour, although "Funk" and "Slight Tart" are thrown out there..... We all thought it was awful, so I was going under the impression that it went south somehow.
"Red wine barrel aged Ruggoop" I thought this description on it's BA page was pretty accurate when I had this a few weeks ago.
You probably got an infected one because the one that I had was definitely not sour. It's classified as a BA barleywine however, the taste left much to be desired
the bottle i had in february had a slight sour hint to it, but it worked really well at the time... i'm not sure the bottles out there are worth aging
I opened my bottle today at Dark Lord Day, and it certainly wasn't your standard, run of the mill barleywine. Definitely some sourness in there, but I'd attribute it to aging in wine barrels rather than an unintended infection. I enjoyed the complexity of this one, particularly the barrel notes. That said, I generally prefer a standard sweeter, maltier barleywine.
