Alpine Beer Company Great

Formerly brewed at Alpine Beer Company (CA)
Style: Barley Wine
Alpine, California USA

Bottled. Hazy reddish brown. Very roasty with strong notes of madeira. Sweet with lots of malt and distinctive sharp bourbon flavour. The woodiness goes a bit overboard, and the mouthfeel is somewhat raw. Lingering salty finish. A bit rude on first sip, but also very complex and interesting.

Date: 12/02/2005
Mode: Draft
Source: Brewfest, Strong Ale Fest

Appearance: clear copper, headless,
Aroma: sweet maple syrup aroma,
Body: thin body,
Flavor: flavor is hot and alcoholic, sweet, a real sipper

Aroma: 7/10; Appearance: 7/10; Flavor: 6/10; Palate: 6/10; Overall: 12/20
Rating: 3.2/5.0
Drinkability: 3/10
Score: **+/4

Odd barley wine. Looks fine, a rudy brown, clear body with the slenderest of bubbly heads. The aroma starts with the requisites, a light Bourbon scent, toffee, some fruits, alcohol... and then a strange, earthy, fungoid smell creeps in. Getting past that I find myself drinkling a fairly smooth, hot, malty barley wine, sticky sweet, with raw wood, alcohol, old fruit, and a hint of smoke. The finish is hot, sticky, and earthy. And when I set the glass down for a minute, my mouth feels unclean. The more I thought about it, the lower my rating got. Some day I’ll have to try this again to see what I missed.

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Bottle: Mahogany ruby color, nice off-white head and light spotty lacing. Moderate carbonation and no sediment on the bottom. Impressive that a beer this strong, plus the barrel aging has maintained the proper carbonation and head retention without any additional yeast. The nose is light and fruity with plum, cherry, fig, carob, light bourbon and some nutty sherry notes. The flavor is a mix of sherry, balsamic vinegar, maple syrup and molasses. Moderate alcohol in the taste but it doesn’t burn too bad. Sweet balances the tart oakiness. The sherry taste compliments the syrupy body. Not overpowering in anyway. Smooth, balanced, all together it’s delicious.

9th Annual San Diego Strong Ale Fest:Ok so my first beer of the festival. I figured I would start big to be able to now where I stand at the end of the night rather than swiging down 15% after drinking for hours. Well this was big all right. I was afraid to finish it. Clear chestnut color with no head. Aroma has a huge malty sweetness. Fruit, toast, some wood, and a fair amount of alcohol fumes. Flavor was very sweet. Woody, vanilla, and fruity towards the end. Very warming with alcohol pepper. Full bodied and syrupy. If I drank this at the end of the fest I would have finished my glass and probably died.

Thanks to Blake for bringing this over! Poured clear caramelly-copper with a light, looser cap of off-white head. The aroma picked up overtones of sour oak and light bourbon mixed with some vanilla and nuttiness.. more dry oak comes through with warmth.. this really muffled the ABV well! The flavor has a whole lot of dried toffee, caramel, and well-toasted oak on the core, rather hot alcohol hit on the back-end, but that was expected.. warm back-end with a bit of bourbon/brandy along with vanilla right at the back. Thicker-bodied on the palate with lots of toasty oak and vanilla accents.. well-balanced and warming at the end. This was a very good brew!

Poured a hazy amber color with a small, off white head that left light lacing on the glass. Aroma of vanilla, strong oak, sticky malts, and bourbon. Taste was dry oak, light vanilla and dried fruits, sweet caramel malt, light citrus, and bourbon alcohol in the finish.

375mL bottle at O’Briens on 3/23/07
Deep amber-cherry with some darker beige hues, a medium-high clarity and a dark beige head that was quite creamy and well-retained, lacing lightly.
Sweet coconut/pineapple shows off the bourbon immediately, but it’s neither dominant nor exposed, as a strong toffee-vanilla-like maltiness quickly backs it up and fills in all of the gaps. What’s left is a sumptuous, very deep aroma that, though seemingly simple at first (toffee, light raisins, vanilla, bourbon), actually imparts interesting phenols, wood tannins, a surprisingly elegant yeast and plenty of interesting citrus fruit nuances (marmalade and other citric hop notes). Quite rich and sniffable, it definitely feels quite sweet, but for some reason, I wasnt put-off by it in the least. Moderate acidity from the barrel/yeast balances the sweetness, on the finish, with hop bitterness actually secondary to this, I found. Very unique, to say the least. Alcohol wasn’t overt for its size, just adding more dryness/breadiness on the end.
Extensive malt depth allows all permutations of caramel, toffee, butter toffee, cream, maple, vanilla, raisins, and even light sherry notes. Definitely sweet, but I think the barrel dryness imparts just enough balance, without adding any significant tannic astringency. It’s a slightly oily, but very well-polished wood character that dosent pump out acidity. Nor does the bourbon flavor sit incohesively apart from the malt flavors, but rather makes you believe its all part of the whole. Very soft, creamy body has an ample level of carbonation, giving it an almost fluffy feel at times. Strong esters emerge with warming, with a touch of alcohol bite, but no more than would be inevitable at this level. I hate excess breadiness, and happily, there wasnt too much here. One of the better bourbon barrel beers I’ve had in a long time. As Chris Q reported while sharing this with me, this bottle was quite different from some other bottles he’d experienced, as my rating seems to confirm.