Bright berry waft amplifies sharp floral-spiced tropical fruit profile enlivening spruce-maple contour. Creamy chocolate raisin sweetness counters bitterly resinous piney hops at bold finish. Only minor astringency keeps this from sheer perfection.
Tag Archives: barleywine
(GEORGE GALE) JUBILEE ALE
Viscous dark-bronzed fig-scented barleywine celebrates Queen of England’s Jubilee with well-disguised 12% alcohol strength, luxuriant pale-chocolate malt prevalence, creamy butterscotch elegance, penetrating prune souring, and beckoning hard-candied tartness. Tobacco leaf, cigar ash, and peat moss linger beneath brandy finish aided by dried raisin undertones.
J.W. LEES HARVEST ALE (PORT CASK) 2003
SCHLAFLY RESERVE BARLEYWINE
Sumptuous oak-aged barleywine laces sinewy molasses-like caramel-sugared Scotch malt creaminess with candied apple, bruised orange, overripe cherry, peach and melon fruiting. Ester-y grape, raisin and fig souring bedecks tertiary vanilla-soaked bourbon-cognac illusions as well as distant almond-chestnut wisp.
WEYERBACHER INSANITY
Sensational oak-barrel aged barleywine allows medicinal bourbon-cognac warmth to usurp syrupy caramel malting, brown chocolate creaming, chewy toffee sweetness and bourbon vanilla sway. Toasted pecan-almond nuttiness underlines orange-bruised cherry brandy soothe. Serpentine grapefruit rind bittering, musty date-fig-prune souring and juicy nectarine-melon conflux add to overall complexity.
(TWO BROTHERS) BARE TREE WEISS VINTAGE 2000
Luxurious barleywine entry given delicate floral hop bittering to form initial thrust of fabulous turbidly copper-hued ultra ‘weiss.’ Creamy vanilla-butterscotch splurge gets clove-coriander accent and distant raisin-fig-date splotch mid-palate. At illustrious finish, pear, nectar, and banana offer benevolent fructose rush. Well done!
