Barleys Four Seas Imperial IPA

Growler from Barley’s. Nice beige head with brilliant lacing and retention in this orange colored beer. Nose is a fantastic mash of sweet malt and ’bright,’ citric hops. Nice hop flavor from start to end, but never too overpowering. Very well balanced with a generous amount of sweet, light malts. Leaves a nice bite your tongue won’t soon forget. This is by no means the best IPA in the world, but the best within a short drive from Dayton!

Sample at the Alehouse. Cloudy amber pour with a thin beige head. Grapefruit and pine aroma with a nice bit of sweet malt and a touch of orange. Orange flavor with sweet malt and a piney grapefruit finish. I thought Hop Envy was good, but this one was even better.

Growler thanks to bgburdman. Pours a nice amber orange with small white head that dissipates quickly, very little lacing. Aroma of citrus and slight floral hops, mild malt, and ever so slight tart fruit. Flavor is very pleasant and drinkable, but lacks that kick expected of an IIPA. Many flavors in this brew, but not that zing I hoped for. Solid nonetheless. Mouthfeel ends slightly slick and aftertaste is a pleasant bitter.

This beer was the answer to the question I ask every time I enter a brew pub for the first time ("What’s on the beer engine?"). I’m glad I had it, but many of the reviews I’d read of Barleys beers indicated they were "approachable," which unfortunately applied to this beer also, even though certain styles (uh, pretty much anything with the words Imperial/Double in the name) have no business being approachable! This wasn’t a bad beer, but it was a little weak and one-dimensional for this style. It was orange and hazy with a small (5mm) head. It smelled flat (before I started drinking beer, I wouldn’t have guessed that flat had a smell. The smell was also highly citrusy. A flat mouthfeel was my first impression. I know that cask beers are not usually highly carbonated, but this one didn’t come across as silky-smooth (as cask beer should); it came across as flat. Flavor was very pineapple-y and good, at first. But a lack of dry bitterness, malt structure, and for lack of a better word, challenge made the beer a little one-dimensional. It is just sweet hops - there is nothing else really to this beer...no maltiness, no astringent dryness from a ton of hops, no intricate mouthfeel. It is a one-note tune, and as pleasing as that one note may be, it makes for a boring song. I would be reluctant to recommend this. Maybe it is better when not on cask. I had this from the beer engine at Barleys Brewing Co in downtown Columbus.

Date: 08/03/2006
Mode: Growler
Source: Tasting

hazy amber, big white head, lots of lace, huge complex hop aroma, creamy body, huge hop flavor on a nice sweet malt base, wonderful interplay between the big hop flavor and the malt sweetness

Aroma: 7/10; Appearance: 8/10; Flavor: 7/10; Palate: 8/10; Overall: 16/20
Rating: 3.8/5.0
Drinkability: 8/10
Score: **4

Cask at the alehouse. Pours a foggy ruby with a nice creamy white head and lots of lace. Aroma is strong, citrus, piney hops. Beautiful. Nice malt presence too. Taste is smooth, creamy, bitter and citrusy. Very nice hoppy taste. Perfectly balanced. Alcohol nowhere in site. Very impressive. A very fine IIPA.

Light-hazed copper, rather thin otherwise, with a short head leading quickly to an off-white halo. Lemony/acetone aroma with vacu-form plastic... not really enjoyable in that regard. Sticky bodied with a dry finish. Hoppy flavor atop lightly honeyed malts. Alot of spiciness with pepper & grapefruit. It came back strong, but I was too annoyed by the nose to truly enjoy this.

<font size=-4>On draught at <a href=http://www.ratebeer.com/Place/ohio/columbus/barleys-brewing-company-(ale-house-1)/893.htm> Barleys’s Ale House #1, Columbus, Ohio 43215</font>

Had this on tap at the alehouse. Great citrus aroma to this. Very easy to drink for a big IIPA i wish i could drink this all the time. Probably the best beer barleys makes.