Fish Tale Leviathan Barleywine (Batch 5+)

Brewed by Fish Brewing Company/Leavenworth Beers
Style: Barley Wine
Olympia, Washington USA

Amber with an off-white head. Aroma is sweet caramel, raisin and plum. Vineous. Flavour is sweet caramel, light alcohol, nice hoppy balance.

12oz bottle. Deep red-amber color with a small, light beige head. Big fruity malt aroma, with some caramel, dried figs and light hops. The flavor is so bitter that almost no malt comes through, just bitterness and a vague herbal hop flavor. Bitter to the point of harsh astringency on the palate. This one just really did not agree with me at all. Maybe a few years would have helped mellow things, but I already got a hint of oxidation in the aroma.

Bottle courtesy of SamGamgee. Pours a slightly hazy amber-orange with an ecru head. Aroma is caramel-based with hop notes of orange and grapefruit, some woodiness, and a little nuttiness. Flavor is woody and earthy in addition to the sweet caramel/toffee from the nose. Bitter lingering finish, somewhat tannic and astringent. Maybe a little too ambitious with the hopping here.

12oz bottle courtesy of dave12285, unknown vintage, poured into a tulip. Pours a murky caramel brown with a deep amber look when held up to light. There is a small cream-colored head that maintains a small collar and a bit of bubbles strung along the top. The aroma is dominated by caramel malts and toffee sweetness. There isn’t much in the way of hops left in this one - maybe some faint citrus if anything. As it warms, I can definitely pick up some chocolate malts and a slight sherry character overall. Great nose. The taste isn’t quite as solid with a less dominant sweetness than the aroma. The hops aren’t present and have given way to a slight cardboard bitterness in the finish. The mouthfeel is where this one falls slightly short for me as it’s a little watery on the palate. It’s got a low soft carbonation and lacks the thickness necessary to carry the flavor with that low carbonation. The nose had me excited, but the taste didn’t quite deliver and the mouthfeel was definitely a let down. Still, a good barleywine that has probably just seen better days.

Pours gold with a thin white head. Smells of sweet malt, pepper, some warming alcohol, hints of dark fruit, some sweet citrusy hints. Tastes of molasses, caramel, some fruity hints, spicy.

12oz bottle from Wade’s Wines in Woodland Hills. Pours clear golden amber with small off-white head. Aroma is loaded with sweet malt and booze with some caramel. Flavor is light with sweet malt, caramel, hops, and some spices. Was expecting an over the top barley wine based on the aroma but mouthfeel is pretty thin for this style. Not a bad tasting ale by any means, but was just expecting a little more flavor wise.

22oz bottle from 2006. Hazy pour, somewhere between deep gold and pale orange. Sharp yeasty scent and an abundance of booziness suffuse the malts that otherwise dominate the nose. Bready malts, a bit too chewy, in the flavor. Hops almost completely gone, and a fair bit of oxidation is detectable. Mouthfeel a bit thin as well. Best sample fresh, I reckon.

****re-review of the 2006 vintage - 3yrs aged*** - note: does not compare to drinking this fresh. flavours mellowed out but the alcohol seemed stronger and it tacked any endearing qualities - a worthy learning experiment!
****re-review on the 2006 vintage - October 13, 2008*** Mellowed out, smelt like peat out of the bottle, fairly easy drinking but lacked any real depth. Not a 3.8 after 2yrs of aging.
Original review:
I’ve been sitting on this beer for well over a year and today is the day to finally get to it. I probally should have drank at least one fresh, but too late for that now. Poured out a small tan head with little retention - nice lacing though! Spotty and not going anywhere. More brown than red, the colour is quite nice and clear as I did not pour in the entire bottle. Aromas is pretty nice and fresh even after all this time. Aroma is a good mix of malt, wood, nutty (search for it and you will find it), sweet cherries, cirtus, a slight spice (whatever it is) and probally a bunch more but I can’t really make it out due to the compexity of this. At different times, the grapefruit / citrus aroma of the hops is the first thing you get. Just poured out the rest of the bottle and there was near zero sediment. Aroma is very smooth just like the flavour. Is the flavour almost too soft? The large bitterness has faded due to the large presence of tons of malts. Taste is extremely full and soft. The massive somewhat bready malts are so huge that I am having a hard time finding specific flavours, but blended all together have made for an incredibly easy drinking 10% beer. Grapefruit, spice (something liccorice like, but not licorrice (sp.??)), candy, a retarded ammount of malts...shit - I don’t know - it just keeps changing every sip...savage - all while remaining very smooth. I haven’t forgotten about the hops, but at the temperature that I’m draining this at, the malts are superior. The hops have been relegated to the end of the mouthfull. I can notice some wood in the aftertaste along with the lengthy bitterness that is combined nicely with the malts giving a nice aftertaste. Nearing full bodied. Leviathan at room temperature is amazingly mild. No notice of the 10% at all except in my typing skills as I had to do some serious editing on this after dropping back the entire 650ml in about 40 minites. I have more in my cellar that I will open in, oh, 2009. A wonderful beer. Buy some and cellar it.