Boulder Beer Killer Penguin Barleywine

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

Bright copper colour. Rich nose - caramel, earthy hints and chocolate. Fairly thin, which doesn’t allow for a true BW impact. Both malt and hop are really standard for the style - anyone familiar with this style at all will be like "yup, that’s a barley wine" and then move on.

Wax-sealed bomber, 2006. Clear golden-amber body with low carbonation and a dissipating off-white head. Stale malty aroma with a light edge of toasty caramelization and virtually no hop profile. Flavor is a mixture of sweet malt syrup and toast along with some cidery applesauce qualities. Moderately bitter with a modest impression of alcohol. Reminds me of over-chewed chewing gum. This wax-sealed beer was likely dead before it even hit the bottle. Boulder can do much better than this.

Dark Red Coloring with White Creamy Ring. Heavy Syrupy Sweet Barley Aroma. Smells Quite Potent. Initially the Taste is as Potent as the Aroma...But it Drops Out Shortly After. Overall a Raw Barleywine Without Alot of Staying Power...But Perhaps a Good Start to Something Better.

2006 bottle. Pours an orangish amber with a thin white head. Soapy, yeasty aroma over malt. Slightly metallic taste and very thin bodied. Hoppy and altogether too young, I think. This bottle could’ve used a year or two of aging to mellow out the flavors, which seem disparate. Meh.

Bottle courtesy of Beerandblues2: Poured a clear medium amber color ale with a small foamy head with limited retention. Aroma of bitter hops is dominating with some notes of alcohol and sugar. Taste is way too hoppy for my own taste in barleywine with some medium sugar and light alcohol peak. Body is slightly too light with some medium carbonation. Overall, I thought this was too hoppy and bitter and generally lacking some character.

rating from memory, 2005 vintage, had pretty fresh. poured copper with tan head. nose is pretty fruity, hoppy, and sweet. flavor is pretty caramelly sweet and mild bitterness. pretty sticky and cloying, sweet finish. not too good.

Pours clear bronze with a soapy tan head. The aroma is sweet toasty malt, wtih some creamy fruit and a cotton candy-like sweetness. Medium body with quite a bit of sharp carbonation. The taste is sweet and sharp - neither hops or malt taste big enough. There is some malt and it has a tinniness to it. The finish has some spicy and woody hops. The more it warms the more sticky and cloying it gets. This is pretty boring for a barleywine.

[144-20061221] Bottle. Sweet boozy aroma. Clear, orange-amber body with a quick creamy off-white head. Tastes like sweet yam, light wood, and a bit of bitter grain. Medium body. Bitter togetherness and comfy around a fireplace but there’s something wanting.