Barley Johns Barrel-Aged Rosies Ale (Batch 2)

Brewed by Barley Johns Brew Pub
Style: Barley Wine
New Brighton, Minnesota USA

Name: Rosies Ale
Date: 06/23/2007
Mode: Draft
Source: Brewpub
Vintage: 2007

opaque brown, wispy beige head, sweet brown sugar and bourbon aroma with lots of fruity ripe fig character, big body, rich chocolate flavor, lots of bourbon but not so much to keep other flavors from emerging, vanilla sweetness bring out the chocolate, a touch of gritty raw brown sugar sweetness, a strong dark ripe fruit character balances and blends with everything else, light bitterness from the oak wonderful array of complex flavors banance and compliment each other

Aroma: 9/10; Appearance: 7/10; Flavor: 9/10; Palate: 9/10; Overall: 19/20
Rating: 4.6/5.0
Drinkability: 7/10
Score: ***4

This deeply pigmented mahagony pour releases a ton of sweet bourbon fumes (20 year old Pappy Van Winkle barrel-aged) The initial flavor is a head-butt of intense sweetness, thick, viscous, and honey-like. Some dark fruits and hints of vanilla poke their noses here and there. The bourbon is pretty damn prominent, and mellows out the huge, almost cloying (OK, it WAS cloying, alright?), honey-like sweetness. My wife loved this one even more than I did, and drank one instead of dessert...

Dark ruby pour w/ lots of visible carbonation and a small bubbled tan head w/ good lacing. Rich syruppy aroma big bourbon notes some maple syrups some good carmels a touch of vanilla, and definate alcohols. Full thick creamy palate. Flavor is very sweet, and rich, lots of dark fruits plums, maple syrup, light chocolates, a good amount of vanilla and a delicate amount of bourbon. This is fantastic!

Draft. Very dark ruby/copper color. Aroma of candies cherries, bourbon. Also some toffee, vanilla and cocoa in the aroma and taste. Heavy, syrupy texture. Very warm. Perfect winter warmer.

Thanks to Footbalm for handbottling this one and sending it in a trade! Virtually no head appears over this slick, oily, brown concoction. Tremendously complex aroma that suggests, brown sugar, maple syrup boiling down in the sugarhouse, and feshly baked pecan pie cooling in the next room. Extremely sweet. There will be those who find it too cloying. Thick, syrupy, viscous, coating sipper with a decided alcohol burn. Very interesting beer. A well done example of what is possible to be brewed, and one that everyone should try at least once, but not one that I would go out of my way to have again now that I’ve tried it.

RBSG 2007 Pub Crawl – Draft at the brewpub. An aroma of dried fruit and very little presence of abv in the nose. A very dark brown pour with light tan head. A flavor of dried fruit with a hint of chocolate but just a touch. Palate is solid and with just a bit and I mean a tiny bit of foaminess. A very good beer that is excellent all round.

Lots of dried fruits in this one with some backward flavors as the light flavors came to me first, followed up with dank, sweet rum soaked fruitcake. There were some port notes in there as well. A real dessert beer and a gem at that.

Called "Old Ale" at the brewpub. Sweet aroma of cherries, sherry, maple syrup, and roses. Flavors of raisons, cookies, cake, nutmeg, and dark cherries. Very syrupy and sweet, almost to the threshold of being sickening.