Drakes Barley Wine

On tap at Triple Rock, pours attractive deep ruddy brown with a decent tan head. The nose is toffee, dried fruit and caramel. The flavor is well balanced with sweetness and some hop bitterness, but the hop influence is oddly mostly in mid palate, that dissipates and leaves the finish a bit hollow. Still an enjoyable beer all around with a full mouthfeel.

Draft at Toronado. Well this is what he said it was. Not the rye wine, not the Frankenwein but the ’barley wine.’ Dark reddish brown. Caramelly fruity aroma, wood, moderate hops, some sugar. A whole bag of everything.

Rating #1 Tap @ 2004 Toronado Barley Wine Festival (8 3 8 4 18). Deep brown color with no head. Very strong alcohol presence in the flavor (brandy) and deep vinous fruits. Dark and mysterious. Quite nice. Rating #2 Tap @ Toronado 2005 barley wine festival (7 3 6 3 15). Dark brown color. Sweet, toffee, caramel flavors with a wine-like burning nose. Smooth and syrupy.

Massive cotemplative brew with a big depth of character. Caramel and fruit malt palate with a huge underlying hoppy resinous bitterness.

02.19.05 Muddied brown pour. Smells sugary, too sweet, intimidating. The flavors are terribly sweet and the body coating and thick. Nice rendition of English style strong ale, but little noticable west coast influence.

On tap @ Toronado’s Barley Wine Festival. Poured extremely murky brown, it sat in the glass like Mississippi river bottom dredgings. Aroma is sweet, almost candy-like. BIG caramel maltyness. It caught me a little off guard (at a barley wine festival!) but I quickly warmed up to it as it warmed up also. Alcohol is very present in the taste but not over-the-top. This is a great barley wine.