Alaskan Barley Wine Ale (Big Nugget)

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

Thanks to my brother for sharing this! Pours a deep reddish brown color with dark tan head that fades quickly. Aroma is of brown sugar, dark fruit, mild chocolate, light hops and alcohol. Taste is of brown sugar, alcohol, some caramel malt, light toffee and chocolate, some fruit and light hops. The beer is a bit brash for the alcohol, but nothing bad. All and all it’s a solid beer.

Thanks to TheCheeseMan for this! Pours a ruby-brown color with a medium off-white frothy head which leaves a few streaks of lacing. Aroma is toffee, caramel, alcohol, dark fruit, and some sugary spice. Taste is much the same. Rather smooth mouthfeel for the amount of alcohol. Hoppiness is mostly dark and resinous, with most of the taste coming from caramel/toffee malts. Good.

Bottle thanks to blutt59. The smell is solvent like, malts, hops, spices, fruits, and sugary. The look is red to brown in color and a beiged colored head. The taste is malts, hops, caramel, fruits, and some bitterness.

2008 vintage sampled feb 2009... pours a bit hazy... dark auburn amber caramel color with a small tan head. it smells like pine needles picked straight off of the tree!... really resinous and piney with notes of real caramel, cocoa butter, flowers and some candy/bubblegum. that cocoa carries over in to the flavor and joins up with toasted caramelized nuts, malt, honey, pine, orange, a bit of ashy wood and a bitter dry finish. bitterness helps to keep what is sweet in check... though it’s not all that sweet (for a bw). the medium body has an insanely slick smooth texture. low soft carbonation and lack of stickiness keep it very drinkable in quantity... 8/4/8/4/16/4.0

(22oz bottle, 2008 vintage, courtesy of blutt59) Pours an amber body with a small off-white head. Aroma of alcohol, caramel, light chocolate, toffee, and fruit. Flavor of caramel malt, raisins, citrus, brown sugar, and toffee. Too hot. Needs some time to age.

2008 Vintage

4/25/2009: Alaskan Barley Wine Ale has a nice, deep amber color. It is heavily malty with a good amount of hops as well. The sugary malt is countered by the candy orange hop flavor. This beer is very good now, but probably needs a couple more years to get REALLY good.

Sample from bottle at Dark Lord Day 2009. Rating #226 for this beer.

Thanks to Cheeseman for the taste. Lots of hops and lightly roasted malts in the aroma. Flavor is also full of pine and fairly highly carbonated.

8oz mini pint glass. Very dark for a barleywine. Medium tan head. Lots of lacing. Smell is of bread and hops. Tastes very roasty for a barleywine. Not too sweet, perfectly balanced, The hops are there, but not the main focus. This isnt an amazing barleywine, but a very well crafted one. Very nice smoky and roasted notes. Lots going on. A heavy barleywine, took me a while to drink.