Bluegrass Bearded Pats Barleywine Style Ale

Brewed by Bluegrass Brewing Company
Style: Barley Wine
Louisville, Kentucky USA

Copper brown ake with a foamy off-white head. Raisinous alcohol aroma with a bit of wet dog thrown in. Explosions of flavours in mouth, sweet demera sugars, alcohol, resinous hops and licorice. Complex bodied. Wow!

(12oz bottle) Pours a medium-sized, frothy head with an orange-brown body. Nose of English salted licorice candy, raisins, horseblanket, salty, and prunes. Flavour is of sweet malt, chinook hops and oily. None of the 10.5% alcohol is detected in the palate. Excellent stuff! Many thanks to Lubiere for sharing this from a recent trip to Indianapolis.

Bottled, but I am not sure of the vintage. A very dark brownish red coloring.Small light yellow head. Aroma is a little light for a barley wine. Has some walnuts and molasses. The taste is fairly sweet with brown sugar at the start. Then it gets a little more bite of grapefruit and some parmesan cheese. A decent and light example of the style. However, I have come to expect more aroma and taste from barley wines.

Bottled in 2000, Bottle # 148. Just from smelling this I feel like I should be drinking it by a fire when it’s snowing. The aroma is very heavy malty and sweet. Aroma has some grapes and fig in it as well. The color is a deep brown and not much head. Flavor is a rather sweet at first, with a chalky mouthfeel. This subsided to a decent bite, from the alcohol and hops.

This was my first taste of a barleywine, and I suppose it was okay. Just imagine regular wine without any grapey taste, and add a hint of hops. That’s what this tasted like. It was okay, but I cannot imagine having more than one in an evening.

(2001 version on tap in 2004) Deep red, thin mocha head. Nose sweet, lots of maple syrup, a bit oaky. Not much in the way of hops in the nose, but the hops come on at the taste. Tastes like an aged hoppy barleywine, where the hops are mellowing and the sugars in the malts are becoming a bit fluffier and more powdery. Has a bit of a cola sweetness to it, gets a bit cloying at the end. Mildly smoky.

(draft 2001 version) Clear mahogany body with beige head. Aroma is sweet, maple syrup, caramel. Taste is sweet, grapefruit, maple/caramel, finishes with moderate alcohol burn. Medium-full body with some resin.

Deep, rich, russet brown color, with a thick, toasted tan head sitting proudly atop. Aroma, a wonderful thing, the very nose I look for in a barleywine, with burnished fruit, spice, heat, very malty, very sweet...I like it! Taste: hoppy at first, then bursting with fruit, but thick and twisted, roasted, spicy and wicked. Full, lush malt...full-bodied, unrelenting flavor. Great complexity in this brew, with abundant flavor, and warmth, mouth-filling with an over-generous taste. Quite a nice barleywine, a Southern rival to Bigfoot, I think. Yum, I loved this one six ways to Sunday! The 3rd Bluegrass brew I’ve had without once meeting Dissappointment!