Dogfish Head Olde School Barleywine

Bottle from last year’s release. Pours a hazy crimson ruby brown with a medium yellowed white head that falls off quickly. Sweet old plum and prune, oxidized caramel. Sweet, apples, oxidized malt. Boozy finish with lots of long burning alcohol. Still too hot and tough to drink.

Draft. 5 oz flight. Pours opaque caramel with a hazy, creamy ciderish tan head. Aroma of apples, cinnamon, raisins, vanilla, caramel, and hints of pepper, hops, and bread. Warm, sumptious mouthfeel. Long, slow-burning finish with a touch of a bite. Absolutely excellent barley wine.

Tried a sample of vintage 2004 at Brewfest Tallahassee. Oddly enough, I could still easily sense booze in the flavor, even after 5 years. However, it’s crazy complex, very sweet and full of dark fruits. Though it’s toting the label "American" barleywine, the hops are gone after all this time... quite sweet.

12 oz. bottle served in a snifter. Bottle conditioned. Poured a hazy amber with a quickly dissipating white head. Fairly alcoholic nose. Plenty of malt sweetness as well. A little port-like oxidation. Full bodied and a little syrupy. Very sweet with some dark fruit flavors. Plenty of hop bitterness, but not enough to balance the sweetness. Seemed under attenuated.

Bottled. Hazy orange color, short head. Strong aroma of alcohol, orange, citrus, sweet sugar. Sweet taste, strong, alcohol, caramel, bit bitter. Enjoyable.

Bottled. Aroma has sugar, caramel, mandarine, citrus, alcohol. Hazy, orange-brown coloured beer with an off-white head. The taste is quite sweet with a hopbitter finish. It has mandarines, sugar, caramel. Well-bodied. Okay beer.

The bottle looks good, the beer in the glass also, orange-brown, huge head. Fiery-alcoholic aroma. Starts very strong and alcoholic, nutty and sharp, modest salty. Finish still fiery, good down burning. Maybe a bit too alcoholic, but still really good!

Sometimes, just sometimes, a great brewery can release a horrible beer. When I was gifted with the Dogfish Head Old School Barleywine Style Ale, bottled on 11/21/08, I was ecstatic. I love Dogfish Head beers and I love Barleywines. It seemed like a win-win situation, but sometimes life is about disappointment and loss, not elation and victory.

He poured beautiful ancient amber frozen in time, with little head or lace to speak of, though a steady stream of bubbles scramble their way to freedom. Like a two-by-four, his huge head knocks me out cold with nothing but pure alcohol, and I’m not talking the rubbing kind. As the backs of my nose-hairs tingle under the high-octane assault, sweet barrel-aged rum finds a kindred spirit in plump raisins, figs, and dates. A sprinkling of cinnamon and nutmeg linger long into a very hard, very dry finish which also brings to mind brittle, splintered wood. Overall though, a massively boozy-sweet nose, rum cake and candied fruit arrive with a flourish. Curious albeit a bit leery, I take a sip and am met with a wet, boozy kiss that is both spiced and sweet at the same time. This is a sipping beer like no others; I fear I may have been better off sharing this with a couple three people instead of trying to sup it all myself. The warm spices flambé the top of my tongue with the skill of cask-strength scotch. His continual stream of carbonation gives the mouthfeel a bit of effervescence which is a bit at odds with his palate. As the sweet and spicy fades, dry and woody steps into the room, knocking down doors and splintering wood everywhere. If the Old School was meant to be complex, it surely isn’t happening. His high-octane, alcohol forward palate scorches and burns; I can only watch helplessly has his fragile palate goes up in flames. Only every now and then are spiced rums, brandy, warm maple syrup, and toasted bread able to peek through before being drawn back into the pyre. For the first time in my Dogfish Head quaffing life, I have to pour a bottle down the drain.

Too much raw alcohol heat and character; he was quite literally painful to drink not even halfway through. I just couldn’t continue. Whether or not a few more years under the cap would have helped tame him down a bit is hard to say, but for now, she was all misery.