Bristol Old No. 23 Barley Wine

Brewed by Bristol Brewing Company
Style: Barley Wine
Colorado Springs, Colorado USA

2006. An oily amalgamation of a creamy head fades to a fat bubbled ring, quickly. Body is a murky dark amber with orange perimeter. Lacing is just a collection of small dots, revealing a watery/oily nature. Sugar coated orange candies and hops(grapefruit, pickles) are projected first in the nose. The hops are very pronounced, followed by tart caramel malts and toast. Overripe citrus fruits round out the aroma. Alcohol is moderate. Flavor is simple. Hops and malt, a few depthless sugars and more of the alcohol noticed earlier. Fruitiness is mostly covered by forthright bitterness. Some sweetness in the initial flavor fades to reveal a mildly dry and very astringent finish. urned tendencies fully reveal themselves in the afterthought. Mouthfeel is medium bodied, mildly to moderately carbonated, smooth, rich and very alcoholic. The parts and the sum seem like a dandy beer, very drinkable and well-crafted.

12 oz. bottle courtesy of Beerand Blues2, thanks Brad. dark brown with a decent size tan head, quickly fading to some lace. strong malty caramel nose and flavors more of the same with some alcohol and dark ripened fruit present as well. medium to full mouthfeel. nothing over the top here, but over all, a nice BW indeed.

Bottle: Dark brown, copper highlights, moderate to large foamy light beige head, a few rings of lacing.   Husky malt nose, some burnt caramel, a little alcohol, seems slightly astringent.   Some fusels there...   Rich malty start, some of that burnt caramel, husky astringency, warming alcohol but not hot, with a touch of citrus peel.   Very minor hairspray seems to emerge as it warms, both in the nose and on the tongue. &bnsp Doesn’t detract too much, but its there.   Moderate body and mouthfeel.   Warming finish.   Astringent citrus peel lingers.   A bit young, but also a bit astringent that I can only hope dimishes with age.   Otherwise this one isn’t too bad.   Thanks Brad for sending me these!

12oz bottle via trade with Crosling! - Thanks! - Pours dark amber with a fair tan head that fades back to a ring but leaves some lace. Good aromas of caramel, raisin,and some slight grapefruit. Flavor is caramel, toffee, figs, raisins, some slight pine and grapefruit notes as well. Palate is lively with carbonation with a nice soft mouthfeel and some good alcohol warmth on the back of each sip. Sticky sweet. Very nice barleywine. Quite enjoyable..

Bottle courtesy of Beerandblues2: Poured a dark hazy amber color ale with a nice medium foamy head with average retention and good lacing. Aroma is quite hoppy with some citrus notes but is well balance with some sweet malt. Taste is less hoppy then the aroma was suggesting with a good presence of sweet malt. Light presence of dry fruits such as figs and prunes could be accentuated in a bit more. Body was above average with some medium carbonation and no alcohol was discernable. Overall, I thought this was a good barleywine tending more toward the English style then the American overly hoppy style.

2005 bottle thanks to Crosling! Poured a hazy, fiery medium orange with just a light ring of white head. The aroma began with a huge blast of medicinal alcohol... had to dig deeper to bring out grapefruit and herbal hoppage... pears and raisiny notes deeper still... this was complex, but the booze factor was a tad too assertive.
Flavor also had a heavy booze factor, but it played a more complimentary role... accenting toasted toffee and darker fruit sweetness... moderate herbal and floral bitterness.
Lower carbonation gave this a tad of a flat feel... dry herbal bitterness and rum-soaked dark fruits at the finish... sticky and quite warming. Grew on me, but not toward the top of my list for the style.

12oz. bottle - 2005 vintage. Powerfully malty and sweet aroma with overriding suggestions of freshly-baked pecan pie, tobacco, dried flowers, earthiness and a tinge of medicinal alcohol lurking in the background. Deep, dark copper color with brighter amber highlights, mostly clear with a fully subsiding head, subsequently lacks any sort of lacing. Flavor profile is fairly strongly laced with alcohol throughout, and features a blend of richly sweet, sugary caramel malts, faintly raisin-like fruitiness and a spicy, sharp, citric bitterness that appears about midpoint, melds with the warming alcoholic presence and fades away. Low in effervescence, smooth, perhaps even a little thin on the palate with a substantial body. Certainly a strong British-style interpretation but does lack a certain degree of depth.

12oz bottle 2006 just a few months old, this was my second BW today during the great blizzard of Colorado ’06. pours a rather dark brown with reddish hue and a nice head. aroma is rather weak, hints of maple syrup, alcohol, and slight hops. flavor has some mild baker’s chocolate notes that gets annoying as i drink, brown sugar, maple syrup, solid malty base, with slight alcohol coming through but not much for 11.25%. overall nothing special but a drinkable BW. i’m aging a few so we’ll see how it ages. 3.2.

4/19/09, 2006 vintage aged 3 years. pours hazy prune with khaki head. nose of maple syrup, port, caramel, and raisins. flavors of rasins, caramel, chocolate, with a dry woody finish. med body. low carbonation. still not very oxidized at all. i’d say this improved quite a bit but still nothing special. thin mouth feel. 3.6.