Arcadia Cereal Killer Barleywine

Brewed by Arcadia Brewing Company
Style: Barley Wine
Battle Creek, Michigan USA

pours a ruddy brown with a nice tan head. aroma needs some time to come out. is sweet and malt with some of the abv coming through.mouthful is a little zesty with a sweet malt body. little bit of a bitter i the finnish. not to inspiring for the big style...

Really nice garnet-amber color, with a nice but small white head. Head fades fast. Aroma is sweet malt and hot alcohol. No apparent hops. Flavor is very sweet upfront, followed by more fusel alcohols, coming across as very solvent like. Finish is bitter alcohol and some sweet malt. Body is full and smooth.

deep red with yellowish head that quickly vanishes. sweet and malty with a strong alcohol presence. mild hops at the finish. vintage 2006.

Bottle courtesy of moejuck. Pours a clear dark amber color with a ring of offwhite lace. Interesting aroma of caramel and candied fruits. Flavor of caramel and candied fruits with mild hops and a mild bitter finish. The body is light with a liquorous texture and gentle carbonation.

Bottle. Doesn’t look or smell like a b-wine. Very oatmeally in the nose with soy sauce notes. Unique aroma. Dark brown body that would be mostly clear if it wasn’t so dark. Avg-sized tan head. No lace to speak of. Tastes like it smells to some degree. Sweet and soy saucy. Somewhat cloying. I’m disappointed in the lack of description on either the label or the website on the story of this brew; the purpose, motivation, features, etc. This simply is not a barley-wine. It’s far too stouty and doesn’t have nearly enough IBU’s. It frankly doesn’t fit neatly into a style; it’s too sweet to be an oatmeal stout yet is certainly not an imperial stout. It could possibly pass for an imperial porter or better yet, an imperial baltic porter. That’s it! An imperial baltic porter. Not a bad beer, and even if you throw out the identity crisis issue, there’s just something home brewed about it. It’s enjoyable enough and certainly warming; makes the lips tingle. Becomes more barleywinish toward mid-glass as the 45 IBUs assert themselves. Somebody that loves sweet and malty beers would love this. It has it’s audience. Should not drink and subsequently operate heavy machinery.

On tap at the barley wnie tasting at the Bocktown, nice place. Clean aroma, perhaps some fruit. Does not smell like most barleywines I’ve sampled. It lacks that big ale sweetness in the olfactory. Appearance is slightly cloudy and decently dark. Big choco mousse head. Barely any carbonation on the palate. Weird flavor that is very unique. Morphs immediately from mild to alky wild. Quite an experience. The finish after each sip is dangerously alky. Overall, perhaps a bit milder than most barley wines but it still exhibits the big barly wine alkly impact that is so common with this style.

Pours hazy and dark reddish brown with a mostly receding dark tan head. Aroma of sweet malt, candied fruits, syrup with phenolic apple and spice notes. Taste is sweet malt, alcohol, plums, toffee, and candy. Mouthfeel is full to heavy bodied with moderate carbonation. Share the bomber with a friend. I had trouble drinking the whole thing, palate wise it got sticky, sweet and boring. Alcohol-wise, it put me to sleep! Hmm.. That sounds familiar..

Oh no. No no no. Please tell me this wasn’t classified as a Barleywine. That’s an insult to the category. Aroma is boozy and fruity, trying really hard to be estery but falling well short. Palate is far from substantial. Flavor is of simple syrup (and lots of it), a dollop of caramel, and a splash of Hawaiian Punch. As for hops, well, they’re there, but not in any kind of force. They certainly don’t contribute much to the aroma. Two redeeming factors of this beer: 1) it LOOKS like a barleywine, and 2) I didn’t have to pay for it.