Bluegrass Bearded Pats Barleywine Style Ale

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

12oz. bottle, Jan. 2002 vintage. Malty aroma, lightly bittersweet and earthy, some dark brown sugar and mulling spices apparent as well as some doughy, cookieish yeast, plum, raisin and faint, fruity hops. Turgid, dark brownish red color, high in particulates, with a fine, light tan head and leaving a stippling of lace on the glass. Flavor profile is heavily malty and sweet, some dark breadiness, orangey citrus and nuttiness to be found, with a chocolatey, bitter, hoppy, long and moderately alcoholic finish. Reasonably complex and warming. Thick and coating on the palate, body is nicely full. Further aging of this beer certainly seems needless. Thanks a lot, Chris.

Draft - deep amber color with a beautiful tan head. Fruity aroma. Flavor is quite malty, but with a nice hop balance. Very creamy mouthfeel. This is a really nice barleywine and probably their best beer that I've had.

Dark amber color with a big tan head. Aroma is sweet, fruity(cherries), candy, and some hops. Flavor is very hoppy, with some fruit and candy flavors. Finish is very bitter and warming.

Bottled January 2002: Fully 2 years old and a very nice little barleywine. I was semi-shocked. Pours a caramel brown with a hint of red and a thin tan head. Has a great barleywine aroma, very malty and fruity. Flavor is mostly excellent but a bit harsh in the finish. It has a very nice full body. Well done BBC.

Hazy rusy wine color, thock rocky tan head. Earthy roasted caramel with some sprucey hop notes in the aroma. The same roasty caramel is in the flavor, but now with a citrus rind aftertaste. This beer looks really nice, and has a decent flavor profile. It doesn't knock off your socks, but it's enjoyable.

Dark russet plum color, thick crusty tan head just over a finger high, fades slowly to a thin skim and collar, nice snowflake sheets of lacing. Terrific nose with soft dark caramel and malted sweet fruityness, some toffee with a touch of molasses, nice juicy sweetness, smoldering piney hops, notes of tobacco and spice and has a good sense of warming alcohol thats very smooth and uninhibited. Taste is milder then most barleywines but the flavors stay substantially across the palate with incredible smoothness, with only lacking some hearty thickness that I usually like. Smooth caramel and lustrous sweet malt lending solid notions of dark tropical fruits, mango, pineapple, and raisins that seem kindled or lightly scorched, very nice. Some breadyness to its flavor and thickness, lightly chewy, with a pleasing dark piney hop bitterness, not overly abundant, quite mellowing and fine in its finishing quality with spruce sap. Seemingly complex and layered, but it seemed to be missing something for me in the hop profile, would like to have had this beefed up a bit, but overall its quite nice. Nice warmth smokes through too with a touch of spice on it. Good mellow smoothness and creamy medium body feel throughout with just enough bite to keep it interesting. A pretty nice barleywine, finished off two bottles fairly easy, yum!

Nice rich aroma. Slightly sweet alcohol flavor. Hops seem slightly out of balance. Finishes with a slight alcohol taste.

Brown, with a good sized tan head. Aroma if hops and fruit - apples, plums maybe? rich, full flavored raw hop flavor, lots of hops and alcohol. Malt is there, but doesn't seem up to the task. Slightly viscous mouthfeel and finish. Sampled at 2003 Knoxville Brewer's Jam