Boulder Beer Killer Penguin Barleywine

Brewed by Boulder Beer Company
Style: Barley Wine
Boulder, Colorado USA

The hop aroma is pretty forward bad after taste of grapefruit .a slight caramel-raisin color. There’s a weird, dark earthiness to the finish, it was alot of work opening the bottle. They could of gone alttle lighter on the wax.

22 oz bottle. Pours a clear dark amber body, small fizzy beige head falls to a wispy film. Heavy toffee and caramel malt fight with piney hops for aromatic dominance. Moderate alcohol vapors, brown sugar, and some fusal notes. Heavy brown sugar sweetness with lots of caramel and toffee, this is pretty much exactly as I expected from Boulder. A little hot on the finish. This is just a one trick pony, zero complexity. Piney bitterness on the finish. Heavy mouthfeel with lots of clingy sweetness and moderate fizzy carbonation. These guys are right up there with Avery for me. A couple decent regular brews, but the big beers are boring and under attenuated.

Bottle, 2007 vintage - Pours a ruddy amber in color with a creamy off white head. The aroma is fruity and malty with a bit of hoppy freshness. The flavor is a bit fruity in the front with a dry, hoppy bite in the finish. It has a full mouthfeel with a strong alcoholy character. An interesting take on the style, however, not my favorite.

Pours a dark amber with a dirty white head. Aroma is strong malt and hops. Flavor has some fruits up front, some hops, a bit of caramel and a bit of alcohol. Finishes far too watery. Decent but falls flat on the finish which kills this kind of beer.

(from notes) One of the worst barleywines gets... worse... in 2007. At least the bottle and the pour LOOK nice. Deep ruby color, decent head. Smells almost entirely of booze heat. Tastes almost entirely of booze heat, with some pepper and fruit thrown in. Palate is thin and watery... with plenty of booze heat. If you like your barleywines to be one-dimensional booze-bombs, then this one’s for you!

Not a bad Barley Wine, but I was hoping for a little more out of Boulder. Pours amber color with a decent size off white head. Nice aroma of some fruit and sweet malt. The flavor wasn’t as balanced as some of the other barleywines I have had. Although I did like the amount of hops that they threw in there, nice little bit of bitterness. Worth a try.

Bottle. Pours a brown amber color with little off white head. Sweet malt and etoh seep up from the glass. Flavor is bitter hoppy with a big etoh bite. skip this one.

2007. Clear amber color with some initial head that settles down to small patches. The aroma here is sweet malts, some alcohol surfacing with a faint dark fruit character. The beer tastes sweet with dark fruits and roasted malts along with some peppery spiciness. Finishes with a lot of molasses. Aftertaste is a little sour but mostly bland and at this point I keep trying to figure out what’s missing. Not bad but the flavors do seem a tad unbalanced. Perhaps it needs to be aged.