Drakes Barley Wine Bourbon Barrel

Formerly brewed at Drakes Brewing Company
Style: Barley Wine
San Leandro, California USA

Bottle shared by EDA. Very deep aroma, one of those beers that you keep on smelling. Vanilla bourbon, mint, rubbing alcohol. Very corky, old flavor, reminiscent of a well aged british barleywine, some oak and soy. Great sweetness to this. Very enjoyable.

6 oz. bottle, #4 - shared at after4ever’s tasting; third in the drake blockbuster line; bourbon smacks you in the face as it pours flat and clear brown; just a monster nose that is also musky and sweet; drinks sweet as well with flavors mainly thick sugar, caramel and stale malts; syrupy texture and like drinking desert, wowzer

6 oz nip bottle courtesy of alohaC. Pour is cloudy brown ruby. No head whatsoever, in fact no noise at all when the cap was opened. Aroma of wood barrel and a whole bunch of the bourbon. Initially that’s pretty much it. As it opened, got some nice plum and raisins. Taste is sweet, boozy, bourbon, wood and some wet cardboard. Taste is really hot, overpowering really. This is pretty rough stuff for me, tasted somewhere in between a port and a bourbon. Aftertaste burns. The palate was nice and full, chewy really. I guess beers that push this far into the booze spectrum just aren’t for me.

Nip, capped and foiled. Thanks, IBrew2or3! Brownish caramel with ruby highlights. Headless, laceless, still. Huge vanilla oaky nose. Medium and creamy body. Dense nutty, toffee, caramel, light smoke, oak, vanilla on the mid-palate. Insanely dense, complex, and delicious.

6oz nip courtesy of Irishboy. What an odd little beer. Oxidized slightly, but I don’t know if it takes away from the beer all that much. A still, dark, plum-brown pour. Wet, slightly charred wood, rum soaked raisins and figs, vanilla, toasted caramel, wet leather and alcohol on the nose. Sweet and hot on the tongue, but unique nonetheless. Rum and brandy soaked vanilla beans, caramel, slight citrus zest, cola and alcohol as well. Creamy and full bodied with scant carbonation. Rasiny, sweet, boozy, oxidized but delicious!

$6.75 6oz bottle purchased last week at Ledgers in Berkeley. I love Berkeley, the best place in the whole world. Lots of nutty oxidation. Some throat burn from the alcohol. Very sweet and delicious. I would have rated this extremely high 6 months ago, because of the oxidized aroma and high sweetness. Now, I like it, but it’s just good.8,3,83,16:3.8 Rerate at WeeHeavy’s: 8,3,8,3,18:4.0

6 oz, capped, foil covered bottle. IIRC, this was a Secret Santa gift. Clear, dark brown with no head - a still beer. Odd nose - over ripe fruit and sticky, boozy brown sugar. A note of, um, something like dung. Sweet and boozy, overwhelmingly booze soaked raisin and fig, bold whiskey. A bit thin in the body, pretty smooth and wet. Vanilla and mild toffee in the finish. Disappointing - and I was so looking forward to this one.

Purchased from Bottle Barn in Santa Rosa, Series #4. Unfiltered,opaque dark brown with no head. Very bourbon-y nose with vanill and wood. Flavor is very sweet with notes of cherry, maple syrup, oak, bourbon/vanilla, heavy caramel, raisin/plum and a warming alcohol finish. Very full, round but hardly carbonated. Solid, but the intense bourbon character and sweetness was a little much for me.