Clipper City Heavy Seas Below Decks

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

2006 Bottle. Dark red color. Foamy off white head. Aroma of candy sugar. Very slight aroma of cherries as well. Very sweet. Small bitterness in the distance on the palate.

Crystal red pour with dusty white head. Aroma is almost non-existant, just a touch of sweetness. Flavor is much the same, weak except for some slight sweetness and some alcohol. A watery BW?

The deep red body is topped by a large and lasting cream-colored head. The aroma is candied fruits, alcohol and a touch of phenols. Kind of fruitcake like actually. The flavor has a candy sweetness that is a little offputting.

Ruby brown, decent off-white ead. Nose is brown sugar, some fusels, a bit of piney hops and some fruit. Flavor is malt, alcohol, some hop. Not at all distinctive.

Red, small head. Malty aroma, hints of lemon, pepper. More big malt in the flavor, bitter but no hop flavor. Raisin, caramel, all that jazz. Not bad, but I wish I hadn’t bought a 4 pack. I may let it age a few years.

Hazy dark amber with a fairly large head, average lacing. Aroma is wood, caramel, some darker fruits and alcohol. Pretty bland even for an English style BW. However, it really started to come alive when I had a steak with szechuan peppercorns on it. 6/4/6/3/11 before, 6/4/7/3/13 after.

Buffed cherry rose in color with a mossy tan head and clinging marshmallow lace. Transitional barleywine aroma is emphasized by cooking sherry, rhubarb and waxy amaretto with a touch of brightly subdued bing cherry fruit sauce. Resigned, but encouraging. Fist sip burns a bit, imparting a chewed-on cherry wax lips flavor and feel, disintegrating in the mouth. Rubbery sherry settles in with plastic chew toy allegiances and has trouble hiding behind the hollow, light body. Harsh bitterness dryly distracts from any chance of a dark fruited complexity ever occurring. Candle wax seals melted rhubarb, halting the flavor at the pinnacle of fruition. A wholesome Wonderbread flavor peaks through the perpetual pessimism in the wake of the finish, joining a freesia-cotton dryness that rides the palate to the bitter end of plastic sherry sauce. Thanks for the 2005 bottle you sent me about a year ago, bstill!

pours deep scarlet with a minimal, quickly dissipating off-white head. barely there aroma with carmel, florals, pines and light hops. tastes like deep earthy soil with pine and alcohol. light dried fruit sprinklings and caramel. its very good complexity and there is an interesting contrast between the sweet fruit and the earthy, bitterness. What is lacks in overall flavor it makes up for in what it attempts to do.