Alaskan Barley Wine Ale (Big Nugget)

Brewed by Alaskan Brewing Co
Style: Barley Wine
Juneau, Alaska USA

1/28/09 On draft at the Dog & Pony, Renton, Wa. Aroma is a fresh PNW hop blend forward with lots of caramel. Appearance is clear ruby with a very well maintained off-white head. Flavor is rich, roasty, sour-hopped malt forward with substantial fruitiness and light sourness. Mouthfeel is full bodied, somewhat syrupy, with no carb texture. Overall, rich and fruity, not bad, but needs to sit.

Tasted on tap at the Celebrator Best of the West Beerfest on 2/15/2009. This barley wine pours a deep amber color from the tap. Small to medium sized white foamy head. The aroma is caramel, fruity and sweet with a touch of hops. A medium to full bodied barleywine. The malts are fruity, caramel and sweet. The hops are citrusy and piney. A big boozy barleywine, a little hot but nice caramel and fruity flavors. Balance is way toward the malts, but there are enough hops to keep it balanced. Good carbonation. Mouthfeel is full and round. Finish is clean and smooth. Aftertaste is slightly sweet with a touch of alcohol bite.

This barley wine followed a Sierra Nevada Bigfoot, so quite a difference. When I drink a barleywine, this is what I want. A sweet alcohol burn just on the back of my tongue. Don’t need hoppiness out of a barleywine like the Bigfoot does. A minute after a sip if I can’t tell the difference between this and a single malt whisky, that’s a good thing, and this beer delivers.

2007 vintage Bottle pours out a dark amber topped with nice sand head. Aroma was great very sweet. Tons of caramel and pit fruit. Tast was more of the sweet pit fruit and brown sugar. The hops had mellowed out very well.

Thanks to Willblake for the Bomber 2007. Pours a nice deep mostly clear amber- almost woody brown with a nice creamy lasting head. Aroma is big thick sweet malts, not too cloying and it is complex- good caramel malts, some earthy leather hints, lots of big dried fruity esters while still remaining clean and refined- molasses and some light piney hop hints. More raisin and dark dried fruit in the flavor- toffee, caramel malts, thick molasses, a bit of dark burnt toast- good dark munch toast sweetness- with a slight orange zest, and dried apricots as it warms. This is really good stuff.

Brilliant crystallized deep amber color, frothy halo, very gleaming image. Very Flamboyantly musty caramelized ginger, grilled orange, and maple sap nose with a touch of wet dog, brandy, medicine, and citrus peel. Refined and soft on the palate with delicate malt complexities making you do the work in putting the pieces together..clean, softly sugary malts give hints of caramelized sugar with very light notes of rum, raisin, toffee, and the like. A extremely drinkable and refined barleywine and not a hop bomb, thank god. the alcohol isnt noticeable in the flavors but certainly felt in its warmness. The palate is almost too soft though...and it feels like i need something heavier if I’m going to remember why Im drunk already.

This was a nice barley wine, and it made a great apres ski drink. Poured murky amber-brown. Full and weighty on the tongue. Mildish carbonation. Wholesome, earthy malts had notes of dark bread, toffee, bitter chocolate and a touch of molasses. Light vanilla in the background. Grassy, zingy and earthy hops added a nice level of bitterness to balance things out. Alcohol nip cleaved off the sugary caramel well. Cozy beer.

22oz bottle, 2008 vintage. Pours a clear deep mahogany brown with just a touch of a white head. Nose is sweet, dark fruit, touch of leather and bread with whiffs of booze. Taste starts out caramel sweet then goes into dark fruit, maybe prune, and then some hops at the end with the 10.4% warmth on the way down. I have had this one several times on both draft and bottle and from various vintages. It is always a barley wine that I truly enjoy.