Dogfish Head Olde School Barleywine

Brewed by Dogfish Head Brewery
Style: Barley Wine
Milton, Delaware USA

You just have to love the super-beers DogFishHead puts out. This one I had aged a year and the sugars still were barely able to mask the malty hoppy complexity. Super ripe cherries dominate this fig and plum undertoned beer. Lots and lots of spices, along the lines of nutmeg and paprika, though sugary nonetheless. The sugars surface and take over with overwhelming fashion as the beer warms. Just another great, thick, hearty, sticky, syrupy high alcohol by DFH masters. I would like to buy a new 4 pack of this stuff and age it for a year on each bottle. Very yummy right now though.

Bottle; pours copper with a little sediment; next to no head poured in a wine glass; aromas of bourbon, walnut, and caramel; plenty of warmth from the 15% abv; looking forward to the next release

2005 vintage, aged 3 years. Pours a ruddy, sienna brown-amber color. A small, frothy, off-white head settles slowly to a patchy film with a prominent, bubbly edge. Jagged flares of lacing mark the glass. Aromas are very sweet up front, with a hefty caramel and toffee malt billing being accompanied by tons of figs, dates, and raisons. There is a faded, slightly oxidized hoppiness as well. Flavors basically follow suit, tipping the scale far into the sweet side of things. Caramel is dominant, with vanilla and dark fruits providing complimentary flavors. A dusty, spicy, earthy hoppiness rounds things out. Slightly medicinal, even after 3 years. Seems to be a bit oxidized. Medium-full bodied, sweet, and slightly sticky. Low carbonation. There’s still a little alcoholic burn on the way down. Overall, this is pretty decent, but its too big of a beer for what it delivers. I won’t be revisiting this one very often.

Pours a caramel color with a sticky head. Aroma of raisins, dark fruits, molasses, sugar. Flavor of sugary malts, caramel, honey, some citrus hops, and the dates and figs. Rounded sticky mouthfeel that hides all of the alcohol, which is surprising. I’m going to buy another to age Overall, an interesting take on the barley wine by dogfish head, that takes the style of barleywine to an interesting area. Worth it.

12 oz bottle from someone. Nice looking amber pour. Aroma is sugar, malt and hops. Flavor is super sweet, very malty, with a hint of vanilla and like the previous poster said, I detect sherry. This is way over the top. I almost detect what would normally be a very tasty barleywine if it wasn’t for the super sweet sugary body. I love the creativity of this brewery, but I am simply not a fan of their beers.

2003 vintage unearthed somewhere in NYC by Nav, and prised deferentially open to mark my 2nd RB ’birthday’. Any excuse. Octo’s snifter hissed a bit and resolved into a beautiful headless red amber, mine poured muddier with an evanescent fizz of beige. Fat raisiny nose with sticky Belgian liquorice hints, caramel, buttery malt, barrel, orange rind (hops?), honey, sickbowl, and a great big friendly slap in the face of (sherryish) booze. Sweet, mellow and rounded in the mouth with hardly any indication of the whopping ABV. SERIOUS pruney dried fruit mellowness threatening to set my ears on fire. Instantaneously face-warming, but no alcohol burn whatsoever. Buttery orange fruit upfront, melding into figroll, dipped Twiglet, thick medicinal coughsweet honey, vanilla, varnish and tobacco. Just a nibble of bitterness on the end to stop things getting excessively cloying. The best 5 year old 15% ABV American barley wine I’ve ever tasted. If, admittedly, the first. Good sessions beer.

Graduation weekend in Bloomington. Dogfish Head Olde School Barleywine is a caramel/amber color with a small off-white head that is nicer than the usual barley wine head. The aroma is full of raisins/prunes and is very sweet with notes of alcohol. The flavor is similar to the aroma with a less than smooth finish. This would be an interesting beer to age and compare with a fresh bottle.

12oz bottle Pours out a dark gold color topped with a small off white head. A very nice sweet aroma. Tats of brown sugar and pit fruit. The 15% ABV covers up very well. Another fine brew from DFH.