Butte Creek Train Wreck

Brewed by Butte Creek Brewing Company
Style: Barley Wine
Chico, California USA

Bottled. Beer is clear medium caramel-brown colored. The head is small, white, frothy, mostly and quickly diminishing, but ultimately lasting.<P>First impression on the nose is more like an IIPA. The aroma is malty with moderate notes of toasted bread, caramel and biscuit; Hoppy with light/moderate notes of resin/pine, moderate/heavy grassy herbal; Yeasty with a light note of basement, trace of dish rag; Light notes of alcohol and candy sugar, trace of grains of paradise.<P>The flavor is rich. Moderately/heavily sweet, lightly acidic, lightly bitter with a long, warm, moderately sweet, light/moderately bitter finish. Trace of astringency on the gums. Bready rets and long-lasting grip.<P>The body is medium/full, the texture is velvety/syrupy and the carbonation is lively.<P>Not bad, not super.

Bottle. Head is initially average sized, frothy, off-white, mostly lasting. Body is hazy medium amber. Aroma is lightly to moderately malty (cookie, caramel), moderately hoppy (grapefruit, resin, apricot), with notes of alcohol and candied fruit (mango, pineapple, etc.). Flavor is heavily sweet, lightly acidic, lightly bitter. Finish is moderately sweet, lightly acidic, moderately bitter. Full body, creamy texture, soft/lively carbonation, moderately alcoholic. A perfectly fine barleywine that’s somewhere in between American and British in style, though leaning a bit more towards the former. No idea why the score so far is so low; it’s pleasantly fruity under the hops and nicely balanced for the style. A little boozy perhaps, but that’s pretty much the only gripe.

Date: 04/01/2007
Mode: Bottle
Source: Brewfest, Classic City

clear dark chocolate, scant head, light phonelic aroma, hot caramel malt flavor, strange hop balance, lots of sweetness in the finish, needs a better choice in hops,

Aroma: 4/10; Appearance: 6/10; Flavor: 5/10; Palate: 6/10; Overall: 10/20
Rating: 2.5/5.0
Drinkability: 7/10
Score: *4
-------- /> I would like to rerate this beer.

pours the color of petrified amber with little to no head. bare aroma of malts, some slight brown sugar. Typical barleywine flavor, though rather thin and undeveloped, followed by a cough syrup alcohol sensation and unpleasant hop bitter burning. Rather underwhelming, unfortunately.

Bomber. Umm, well, this was really disappointing on many fronts. It seemed to pour and look decent, but on first sip, geez louise, I thought it was alcohol with a little malt/hop flavor mixed in. I love beer, all kinds of beer, I’m always searching for something new and inspired to taste. I’m sorry friends, I’m pouring out this bomber, I can’t drink it. There are too many tasty other offerings to enjoy and I can’t muster the will power to pound through this whole 22oz.

Draft. Not the most balanced barley wine. Pours with a nice copper color and a faint head. Aromas of alcohol mainly, same with the flavor. Cloyingly sweet and very pronounced alcohol notes withe a bit of malts and caramel.

Copper color with a decent sized head. Sweet malt and citrus flavor with a crisp and clean finish.

Bomber...which bombed. If you’re a barleywine lover, I would not recommend this. It is weak in flavor, has a watery mouthfeel, and you must really try to taste much of anything here. It was really closer to a subpar IPA I sampled just before trying this. This is the weakest-tasting barleywine I’ve had.