Boulder Beer Killer Penguin Barleywine

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

Bottle shared with HogTownHarry, blankboy, jerc & mabel - courtesy of HogTownHarry. Clear red-amber with an off white head. Aroma of sweet, sugary (almost cloying) malt and warm, slightly harsh booze. Body is thin. Flavour of a mediocre barley wine - i.e. all the elements you’d expect are there, but at about 50% of the intensity you’d expect, except for the alcohol with is harsh and hot in the finish.

Bottle (650ml). Shared with blankboy, GregClow, jerc and mabel, my bottle. Poured clear amber with a very frothy beige head. Light aroma of woody sweet citrus malt, mildly and generically hop bitter and a hint of booziness. Taste - very much a standard barleywine, watered down and a little too sweet - juicy malt, light citrus/resin hops, slightly boozy - the body’s pretty weak, there’s some astringency and alcohol but the finish is too quick and too sweet - it’s quite drinkable, but underwhelming and forgettable.

This was a decent barleywine and one that I would go back to. It was rather on the mild side, but that is not always a bad thing. Give it a try.

On my want list for the name alone. Amber body, small tan head fades. Premature hops leap out of the glass and peter off quickly to a rough grainy alcohol follow up. Dry, moderately bitter hops in the flavour are lightly astringent and washed out. Average palate. Bit dull, pleasant but not killer. “It’s more like the Happy Feet penguin barleywine!”

Crystal-clear, red body - nearly no head at all...too filtered to be a true beer IMHO...The aroma is very metallic and pungent. It is sweet and filled with raisins, but something is not "quite right". The flavor is a little bit better, with more fruit flavors coming through, and a fuller hop/malt balance. The finish is fruity, filled with cherries and even vanilla. Somewhat bitter.

Clear ruby pour, with pretty much no head to speak of - the aroma is oddly tart, with notes of cherries and some spice, almost like a kriek, but the background alcohol and caramel malt remind you it’s a barleywine - thin bodied, with a rather weak flavor - some cherry and spices are present, with moderate bitterness - some light phenolic flavor - finishes with sythetic, corn syrup sweetness - way out of balance, and not terribly flavorful.

Bottle. Poured a red-brown with an average white head that quickly retreated and left some lacing. There was a medium dark bread aroma with som toasted grain and molasses sweetness. There was also a light doughy yeast aroma. There was even some bubble gum and cherry in the aroma along with some alcohol and a very light underlying vinegar. Not much hop aroma if any. Heavily sweet throughout the mouth with a short finish that becomes longer as it warms. This was a nice example of a barley wine but not quite as flavorful as some other barley wines I’ve tried. I just kept thinking it was just missing something. It also could have hid the alcohol better, it wasn’t an extreemly high abv., but it did have a little alcohol burn to it going down the throat.

This offering from Boulder Beer pours a dark caramel, ruby clear body, with just a touch of carbonated bubbles that leave a thin head spotchy and thin. The aroma is sweet caramel, toffee, bready, marshmellow. The taste starts smooth, nutty, tangy, sweet, with a barely a notice of that 10% abv it is touting. The finish is nice again you get a toffee, slightly herbal hoppy finish, that warms you up and can cap the night off as a great digestif.