Dominion Millennium

Brewed by Coastal Brewing Company
Style: Barley Wine
Annapolis, Maryland USA

Equipment: 12 oz bottle served at cellar temperature in a Trois Pistoles goblet. Bottled on date of 2/15/2004. Appearance: Dark, clear amber liquid topped by a relatively large offwhite head. The foam sticks around for a bit before dissipating to a film and a ring. Aroma: Intriguing mix of orange marmalade, caramel malts, and pineapple citrus (think the white gummmi bears) hops. Everything melds together quite nicely. Flavor: An initially sweet whizbang of caramel malts that give way to peppery and bitter hop aftertastes. An amalgam of American and British barleywine styles. Toasted bread character. Palate: Thick and heavy bodied with long lasting aftertastes that make one mellow. Overall: Rock solid and beyond barleywine. Bargain priced to boot. Can’t wait to see what time does to this.

Bottling date Jan. 27, 2003. Full, alluring aroma, candied malts, a prodigious amount of hops and spicy, peppery, fiery alcohol, with low notes of brown sugar, toasty grain, pineapple, cinnamon, flowers and fresh herbs. Partially opaque garnet color, a light dusting of sediment, with a fine, dissipating head and elegant lacing. Begins richly sweet and malty, becoming fruity and predominantly hoppy, with a lengthy bittersweet, warming and alcoholic finish. Quite full-bodied, with a rather syrupy, sticky, mouth-coating texture. Balance is extraordinary, the body supporting the luscious malts and massive hoppiness with equal aplomb. An excellent Barleywine and a fine choice on a blustery, snowy night such as this. Cheers, Kinz.

Great malty profile. Honey is noticeable in flavor, and malt dominates balance although hoppiness is evident.

2008-09-06, draught at Old Dominion Brewhouse, Washington, 6-3-7-4-14=34
It’s served in a completely wrong glass; hazy amber color. It has some malt aroma. Good body, good caramel flavor, with correct sweetness, good bitterness level, some alcohol feeling.
Powerful but not exciting, it doesn’t keep up with the bottled version.

2007-09-11, vintage 2005, 8-5-9-4-17=43
Beautiful red-amber color. Buttery malt aroma. Strong mouthfeel, rich malt flavor, very sweet, with sweet caramel, fudge, cookies, sweet chocolate; warming, with a touch of aged rum; a good hopping provides the necessary balance. The flavor is a bit more on the sweet side; the palate a bit more bitter, with strong toffee character. Excellent.

Comparison to the oak aged version. This one has a stronger character and is more warming, both the aroma and flavor are maltier, resulting in a stronger body too, and the final is more bitter; in other words, it’s more complex. This beer can stand a longer cellaring. A solid beer to be fully enjoyed, whenever there is a chance.

Another offering from Phil (Haddon90) on his trip downunder. I poured this into a snifter and was immedately taken by the beautiful rich coppery colour and clean head. The nose is agreeably oloroso like and so the comment about sherry notes are very valid. There is a definite promise of the Alcohol to come as the depth of nose coming from the resinous oak aged character suggests something strong. The flavour doesn’t let you down at all. A rich and warming hit of syrupy caramel, cinnamon and bready notes comes through. This is one of the archetypal winter sippers, in your slippers, what a ripper. Onya Phil.

Bottled Jan. 27, 2003 (yes, 2003). Sweet aroma, caramel, alcohol. Cloudy apple cider-ish color. Not a lot of head. Lot of alcohol in the taste, much more bitter than I would have expected from the aroma. But this bitterness fades as the beer comes up to a proper temperature. As it warms, the apple pie sweetness comes out. This is a very complex beer, and truly enjoyable. Aftertaste is slightly bitter, and mouthfeel is a little bit sticky.

Bottled Jan 27, 2003, Drank Jan 16, 2007. Roger Freiday gave me this many months ago, and I have to say, this is a fantastic flavorful but smooth (probably due to the age) 11.4% beer. I could drink this all day, although I’d probably regret it in the morning. Great with honey in case you’re wondering.

My first vertical (even though it was only a semi-vertical gone bad, it was still cool). ’98- Pours out super cloudy orange, tiny white head with a yellow ring around the glass, syrup like. Taste is enourmous, malts, caramel, fruits dark and light, tiny bits of chocolate even peaking through, very very mellow. just a great overall brew ’02-nowhere near as cloudy, alot louder around the edges, very sharp not very mellow at all, but the taste is still phenom. have an ’03 and ’04, but will wait a little while on those...oak aged yet to come later tonite!! looking foward to it.