Barley Johns Alfreds Porter

Formerly brewed at Barley Johns Brew Pub
Style: Imperial/Strong Porter
New Brighton, Minnesota USA

An opaque black beer with a disappearing brown head. The aroma is sweet with notes of alcohol, over ripe fruits, and prunes. The flavor is sweet with notes of prunes, chocolate, toffee, and grass.

Dark brown body, clear edges. This was bottled more than a month ago and yet it wears a decent beige head, initially decent sized, but fading out. Very aromatic nose bearing a strong alcohol punch, but once you get used to it, there’s definitely some stuff to appreciate underneath. The malt is bold, with rich chocolate notes, a complex understated fruitiness (date cakes, grapes) and an obvious molasses thick. Fortunately, while it is extremely sweet, it never approaches cloying levels and says among the sippers territory. Aftertaste burns a bit if you keep it long in mouth, but it’s not unrefined. Cane sugar and marshmallow sweetness evolution leads into a charred roasted malts/molasses finish. Still a decent amount of carbonation on this oily medium body. Intense. Another big thumbs up to my pal Eric.

Bottled from a growler... Pitch black lager with a small, creamy, light brown head. The nose is of brown sugar, fennel, cola, chocolate and light molasses. Huge, malty, sticky/sweet flavor. Notes of vanilla, sourmash, cola, and dark chocolate. Cloyingly sweet, but the very high ABV is well-hidden. Ultra full-bodied and oily with soft carbonation. Lengthy, sweet, chocolatey finish. Another very nice creation from Barley John. Thanks go out to footbalm for the home bottling!

Hand-bottled from a growler: Pours a rich oily black that coats the glass with brown edges and a thin off-white head. Rich, complex, sugary, dark fruit and cherry aroma with thick, sweet molten caramel and a touch of bourbon oak and alcohol. Starts very robust and sweet with sugary maltiness and dark fruity complexity build up the body and hide the alcohol wonderfully, with only a light warming as it goes down, especially since this is 14%. Many thanks to footbalm for sending some of this down to Georgia!

Bottled. Almost black coloured. Vanilla and chocolate aroma. Extremely sweet flavour. Notes of vanilla. Full bodied.

The Lure:
Sweet soy components roam amidst the wealthy malt. Roastiness emanates from the mix and ably joins some dates and dark chocolate.

The Festivities:
Fat dark chocolate malts lie on roasted cereal flakes. Alcohol flames scorch the back of the palate, but the soothing carbonation and balming malts reconcile it all. Not super-complex, but these guys can really brew high octane beers with aplomb.

Transcendence:
A simple giant with a heart of gold.

Hand bottled by Footbalm from a growler. Bottle sealed with wax: Pitch black colour. Has a medium sized dense brown head. Alcohol, fruit, grass, toffee, nuts and a light roast in the aroma. Sweets, marcipan, light roast, chocolate and light coffee in the flavour. The alcohol is there, but quite well hidden. Is a little watery IMO. Has a sweetish light cloying end. Some vague roastyness and a good warmth on the lips. Nice one. Thanks again to footbalm for these 3 gigantic brews from Barley John.

12 oz bottle soothingly sampled with beerbuzzmontreal, ClarkVV, MartinT, tiggmtl, olivier, Rastacouere and Simon at the Farmhouse Ales and More! tasting in Montreal. Dense molasses body, nearly still with a touch of dark topping...strongly roasty chocolate nose with touches of nuts, could be more expressive...ultra-sweet chocolate liqueur body, raisins and dates drowning in pools of still cocoa with the whole run through an espresso machine at the end...not a patch on Dark Knight, but pretty high quality in its own right. From a growler from Master Footbalm.