Arcadia Cereal Killer Barleywine

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

An amber apperance. Quite a bit of alcohol showing through in the nose. An orange, caramel, and alcohol flavor to the beer. The finish is somewhat sweet. A pretty good one.

Bottle: Dark caramel, reddish hues, large foamy light beige head, fairly spotty lacing.   Mealy nose, malty, slight, and I mean very slight, dark pitted fruit.   Malty start, some dark pitted fruit, very minor and soft, but mainly a strong breadiness to this one.   The hop profile is minor, graininess creeps up at the finish.   Slight greenish hops emerges as it warms.   Body and mouthfeel are fairly moderate.   Astringent green malty finish.   A little unrefined, rough, young, and green.   Doesn’t seem big enough to carry it for a few years.   Seems like a very simple immature Barley Wine.   Tiz okay, but nothing I would wait to drink.   Thanks Steve for the bottle!

Pours a transparent dark copper mahogany with a wispy-lacing light tan head. Aroma of sweet, sticky caramel malt and some light fruity esters with a hint of tartness. Body starts fairly full and caramel malty sweet with some light fruity complexity and slight warmth toward the finish. A pretty nice barleywine.

Pours an amber color with a white head. Aroma is cardboard. Flavor is malty sweet.

Bottle sampled at DLD tastings courtesy of patrick767. Pours a clear amber with a beige head. The nose has notes of cookie, raisin, red fruit, and toffee. Sweet dark fruit flavors that finish with a drying alcohol. Pretty decent, thanks for the pour!

bottle - Pours dark amber with a thin, enduring head. It smells of malts, dark fruit, and a touch of alcohol. The flavor has caramel malts, dark fruit, and some big hops that kick in particularly in the finish. It’s medium bodied with light carbonation. I really enjoyed this one.

Bottle on DLD at Hampton Inn tasting courtesy of patrick767. Small tan fizzy head that mostly diminished with sparse amount of lacing, transparent, and visible carbonation. Nose was malty, caramel, toffee, sweet, and dark fruits. The taste was sweet, dark fruits, malty, caramel, mildly vinuous, toffee. Finishes on the dry side. Smooth, dry mouthfeel. Light-medium body. Not a favorite style of mine, but this one was pretty good and quaffable. Worthy of a try.

Murky, medium-dark brown body with mahogany hints. Thin, yellowed, very light beige head with modest retention. Just a hint of lacing. Looks very watery, not a trait I like to see in a barleywine. Huge fruity aroma is pretty attention grabbing. Pineapple-centric, with notes of sour apple, tangerine, refined sugar, caramel malt that is prevalent but seems to be buckling under the weight of fruity esters. Cake dough, bread crumbs, cinnamon and pina colada mix are noted as well. Alcohol is fully apparent and a rather large detractor. While the flavor is pretty good, it’s reminiscent of a less exciting version of HOTD Fred From The Wood. Light to medium-light bitterness. Moderately sweet. Light to medium carbonation ushers in a very smooth and satisfying palate, medium-full in body. Not bad at all, though certainly unoriginal and indistinguishable from so many other beers that are more captivating in one way or another. Admittedly, expectations were low. Not very quaffable even so, despite a pleasing nose and smooth mouthfeel. This beer has the feeling of a cheap budget working its anti-magic.