Clipper City Heavy Seas Below Decks

Brewed by Clipper City Brewing Co.
Style: Barley Wine
Baltimore, Maryland USA

A nice clear ruby colour, appealing to look at. Quite the sweet aroma (fruity along the prune-fig-date spectrum) with pine overtones. Lively carbonation adds to the appearance as well as the palate. Well worth drinking.

The appearance is Coca-Cola brown with a big foamy head. Deep red tint with lots of carbonation. The smell is heavy liquor/alcohol smell.. Whiff of mild whiskey. Roasted malt with a dark cherry sweetness. Grainy barley malt. Dark and full of alcohol. Taste is overly sweet like a winter ale, only with more alcohol. More sweet cherry than a typical barleywine. Roasted barley is not enough balance. Too puckery cherry sweet. Feels thick and heavy. Syrupy. Good texture (too bad the taste doesn’t quite live up). Not at all bad, but not something I’d crave. Decent, not fantastic.

08 Bottle. Pours dark cherry brown, spot on match to my brazilian cherry laminate floor so I bypassed the sippy cup and poured in my Stone snifter...minimal head. Lots of ripe red fruits on the nose, some bing cherry, sour raspberry. Flavor is much less appeasing, dark malt and barley dominated by cardboard. No noticeable hops or carbonation, but some biting spice punches through. Somewhat sticky and a little odd to me, I could not consciously reach for this again. For a beer currently rated ’69’ I was hoping for a little more action.

Medium clear maroon with small off white head. Aroma of malt and candy canes. Taste of malt, caramel and light spice with a finish reminiscent of cinnamon flavored jaw breakers. Good example of the style.

bottle 355 ml 2008 vintage 10 %
Appearance: dark amber , accent of red ruby , mid top
Nose: alcoholic blend of malts with hops , slightly rough even after year. Hint of honey and heavy malt as it warmed up. 7-
Flavor/Palate : Mid full bodied. Plenty of amber malts. Sweetness covered by alcohol. Some green bitters on side. Not as complex or rounded as some Barley Wines go.

She pours deep mahogany with a decent head that recedes into a thin film at a brisk pace. No head to speak of, but a scattering of larger, pock-marked bubbles keep her company. I can smell her nose from my chair and I like what I smell. Sweet, rich, and malty with a bouquet of mouth-watering spices; cinnamon, nutmeg, all-spice. Maple syrup and butter is slathered upon piping hot yams and baby baked sweet potatoes while vanilla and rum ride bready pumpernickel notes. Never one to keep a lady waiting, our first meeting is clean with a dominant sweet presence that mixes beautifully with cinnamon, nutmeg, and interestingly enough, paprika. There is a deep, earthy quality to Below Decks which reminds me of old oak barrels that have been used to age some of the finest rums. A mildly dry finish, the sweet potatoes and yams add meat to her palate while butter coats and cinnamon lingers in the breath with growing warmth due to her higher ABV. She is a barleywine, after all. The more she warms, the dryer her palate grows while a burgeoning undercurrent of maple and molasses join the potatoes. Lacking a bit of the heavier weight and depth of palate, the only real detriment I can find in Below Decks is that her lighter body makes for a weaker presence which, for a barleywine, is not always beneficial. I can quaff her easier, but the overall depth is compromised as a result. As we come to our lip-smacking finish, one last flourish of butter soaked and cinnamon sprinkled sweet potatoes with a side of fresh pumpernickel are carried out in rum-soaked oak barrels that whisper of vanilla and earth.

Overall, I would have liked more weight in Below Decks from Clipper City Brewing. I expect extra oomph in a dark, hearty English-styled barleywine. That aside, I enjoyed her diverse palate which communed together so well. For someone who is a bit leery of the heavier, richer, and more complex English-style barleywines, Below Decks is a great gateway brew. For me, maybe I need to go down one more deck.

12 oz. bottle from Ludlow Wines in Cincinnati. Pours a dark amber with a foamy light tan head that laces the glass just a little bit. Aroma is of raisins, citrus, hops, sugary malt. Flavor of alcohol, raisins, nuts, brown sugar, bread, malt, figs. Alcohol definitely wins the race and hangs around for the aftertaste. Sticky mouthfeel, with a lot of carbonation. Not a bad barley wine, but I’d like a little more balance in the flavor.

2008 Bottle 10% from Sicilianos, Grand Rapids, MI enjoyed 7.15.09. Pours an unclear dull dark caramel color with a nice thick frothy white sudsy head. Aroma is quite oxidized, pine, tons of citrus, baby diaper, resin, raisin, salted and burnt fatty nuts, light caramelized brown sugar, earthy, skunky, definitely seems more of the "show well upon release" instead of the "evolve for you years" part of the description. Flavor is all over the place, nutty, cardboard, citrus, tootsie-roll, pine, caramel, malts, dark fruit, alcohol, some cherry, nothing making any real sense, totally hot. Alcohol curls the back of the tongue. Medium/full bodied with ubiquitous fluffy carbonation, slightly sticky.