Elysian Cyclops Barleywine

Brewed by Elysian Brewing Co.
Style: Barley Wine
Seattle, Washington USA

05 bottle. Pours a light orangy amber with a bit of a loose white head, settling quickly, looks a little watery, but doesn’t smell that way. The nose is sweet, to the point of being cloying in my opinion. The slightest hint of alcohol, but overwhelmingly, malt and perhaps some caramel, light fruit, and a touch of pine. The palate is thick and viscous, though not overly so. The flavors are strong and show much more complexity and less cloying aspects that the nose indicated. This is definitely a young barleywine. The flavor is a bit hot (but not scortching) with alcohol and the hops are present in full force. The light sweetness is balanced by this tannic resinous pine hop and the alcohol. The combination almost provides a bit of a toasty flavor/feel to this brew. The lingering sweetness gives up far faster than the lingering bitterness, which takes on an almost orangy character. Towards the end, this beer got to be a bit too sweet for my tastes. All in all, I really enjoyed this and wish I had another to lay down, alas, this is all I could smuggle back from Seattle.

2005. This beer has a sort of pinkish orange color and a thin tan head. Smells malty and like bread and caramel. Tastes similar but pretty heavy on the alcohol, more hops and more spice, some light fruit especially in the finish. A fairly thick palate.

Hazey medium golden orange. Small puffy whitish head of foam lasts briefly to keep a bubbly collar and a broken skim. All sorts of lace in spots and short broken strings glare the glass. Aroma is a bit muddled in ethonalic warmth wrapped in a light caramel blanket with some delicate hints of orange peel zest. Taste is favorably medium soaked in a nice warming caramel smoothness with a slight orangey grit and bigger malty grainyness. Throaty warmth is a bit over the top nearer the finish where some piney hops and a slight bread doughy fullness makes for a slow seeping end where a mellower stand of caramel and orange candy remain late across the palate. Bold warmth with a slight edgey grab of texture are fairly full in the body of this beer. Quick to warm and slow to settle as it peaks in the throat and simmers later in the tummy. This sucker is a big time sipper of a Barleywine. The warmth is a bit too forward, but the flavors are solid and nice to let sink in as the warmth rolls through your soul.

2005 Vintage on Cask tap into a Snifter glass. Pours a coppery yellow orangish color with somewhat of a medium white head. Very cloudy. Aroma is very estringent of fruits, sugar cane, caramel, and yeast. The quite loud flavor brings out many notes including apples, caramel, slightly bitter hops, heavy malt, and sugar cane. Taste is like the nose, quite estringent. This one hangs around on the palate for up to an hour after the last sip is taken at times. I’ve enjoyed the barleywine out of the cask, keg, and bottle, and I always thoroughly fall in love with it again.

Cask 2005 Vintage Cask, but unconditioned, murky, all yeast in suspension. Smell of jenever, enormously alcoholic, appealing. Jenever taste, but also adstringent, pungent tastes of yeast, brandy cask, sugar (cane-) and other rather aggressive, intimidating substances. Thick is one way of putting it. Off. As the brewer - who chivalrously admitted that the cask had been omitted to vent - knows, casks are to be treated as prime high school girls, not like bimbo’s! Deserves a second rating under better circumstances.

2005 Vintage (Cask) Light cloudy and hazy, very fragrant nose similar to a wheat based style, slightly rich in caramel, with some sweet buttered bread and butterscotch candy. Simply delicious with a modest hop and honey finish.

Bottle. Pours a hazy dark orange with a spare off-white head. Mild sweet aroma of fruit, caramel malt, wood, alcohol and hops. Flavour is fruity and hoppy with some brown sugar and malt but it’s a bit boozy, more then is necessary. Creamy mouthfeel, medium bodied. Pretty good and though there are many better Barley Wines out there I’d have this again.

Bottle shared with tupalev & jerc - courtesy of tupalev. Hazy sunset orange colour with a small white head. Aroma of pineapple and citrus with a hint of spruce. Lots of hops in the flavour - orange and pine, quite bitter - with some boozy warmth in the finish. Definately needs more malt to round out the rough edges and dull both the hops and alcohol a touch.