Anchor Old Foghorn Ale

Brewed by Anchor Brewing Company
Style: Barley Wine
San Francisco, California USA

6th July 2008. Rich semi opaque brown beer with a malt nose. The beer is rich and malty. No bitterness. Soft and frothy in the mouth. Slight fruit in the finish.

Bottle at Volo. Nice beer! Pours dark, reddish brown with small amount of white head. Caramel malts, cinnamon, plums, with alcohol coming through a bit.

Pours red/orange/brown with a thin, disappearing orange head. The aroma is apple, banana, orange, plum, and caramel. The flavor is the same with a grassy, spicy, alcoholic bitterness to it. Kind of a boring barleywine.

Bottle, has a muddy cloudy brown pour that is a ruby when held up to a light, made a off-white and tan bubbled head, left a good amount of lacing on the glass, aromas of cinnamon-caramel, chocolate, roasted malt candy, brown sugar sweetness and a faint fruit fragrance came from the glass, also, there was sweet alcohol in the background, sip gave flavors of dark fruit, chocolate, caramel, roasted malt, dark sugar sweetness, and I felt some alcohol warmth on the palate, mouth feel is more than medium and has a touch of creaminess, this beer could have been a little fuller on the palate, otherwise a nice Barley Wine.

Deep ambery, maroon-brown color with medium, airy, fizzy off-white head that leaves a bit lace. Aroma of blood-orange, molasses or maple syrup and lots of toasted malt of course. The flavor is full of fruity, oily esters like fermented walnuts, alcoholic figs, dried peach, spicy, caramelized banana with silght woody, tobacco notes. I don’t have too much experience in whiskeys, but it has some kind of whiskey complexity to it as well. It has a very chewy mouthfeel, very nice oily, thick feel on the palate without being heavy. It’s even more complex than a lot famous strong belgian ales that i’ve had so far. A wonderful, magically complex ale. My very first in the style. Big thanks to armando629, and Only rare beers for bring american craft beers to eastern europe.

07-NOV-2009, bottle @home. brown with red hue, disappearing head. Wonderfull nose. This is how barley wine should be in my opinion. Thar malty, but also slightly bitter nose, with oranges, charamel, tobaco...oh, and alcohol, off course. Nice malty taste, but it does not fully live up to the nose. OK carbonation, smooth drinking, bitter finish. The hops are certainly there to balance the malty sweetnes. This is a text book american barley wine, and I guess the first I ever tasted. This is my first rating of it, and it does feel like I am calibrating my Barley Wine taste buds... Fantastic beer. Only negative I can find is that is perhaps a little watery on the finish, but apart from that...Nice. I would drink this any time.

VINTAGE: 2006 Today is my birthday so I’m pulling a couple bottles out to celebrate. This is the first one and it is probably my favorite of all of the Barleywines that are available (that I’ve tried, obviously). The color is a dark brown. Dark enough that in a dimly lit room it looks black but if held up to a light it has definite ruby-copper tones. The nose has malty raisins and a touch of alcohol. I marked it a little lower than I’d like to because it has a soy sauce smell creeping in. Not overpowering, but it’s in there. Malty candied currants and raisins on the tongue. Slight bit of alcohol here, too. Just enough for a nice warming effect. The feel of it has gotten a bit watery and that dissapoints me. It still tastes great, just a bit thin. After aging for a couple of years, this is still a very drinkable bottle. If anything, I’d say it’s probably more drinkable now (for someone not familiar with Barleywines, anyway) because it has mellowed out and gotten smoother. I’ll have to pull out an ’05 soon and check how it’s doing.

Flying Saucer Fort Worth. Red brown pour with a very dense head. Light aroma of cinnamon and malts. Big malt flavor with sweet spices and just a little alcohol. Warm finish.