Flying Dog Horn Dog Barley Wine

Pours a burnished red that sits dark in the glass. Shows deep ruby in the light. A thin lightly creamy mocha colored head sits atop. The nose is of sweet candy, dry vinous alcohol, caramel, English character, light licorice and molasses. Thick sweet flavor, strong molasses and licorice, dry alcohol, smooth round character. Palate is full and lets you know there’s carbonation there without distracting. Warms on the way down, not a bad BW.

Poured a thick red from the bottle with barely a trace of head. Lots of malt in the aroma with a hint of alcohol. Pretty thick going down like a good barleywine. Strong notes of molasses. It is sweet but not too sweet, and blends well with the slight alcohol bite. Couldn’t find any chocolate as mentioned. I will be trying this again.

Draft at 42nd St. Oyster Bar in Raleigh - Poured a very dark brown in color with a small tan head. Aroma was malty sweet with plenty of roasted malts too. Flavor was quite sweet... a bit too sweet for me. Roasted malts and dark fruit dominate the flavors. I detected none of the licorice or chocolate mentioned. OK, but not my favorite.

Dark reddish, brown colour with a tan head. Toasted malty aroma with bread, molasses and light hoppy notes and hints of some vinous alcohol. Light roasted malty flavor with notes of molasses, Liqourice and dark fruit. Light dry and hoppy bitter finish with an alcohol warming note.

Bottle. Moderate malt aromas of dark bread, toasted and molasses, moderate hop notes of orange peel and a bit of pine, and a very light yeast smell of soap with raisin, prune, tawny port, cherry and toffee in the background. Head is creamy, off-white with fair lacing and is fully diminishing. Color is darker than most barley wines I’ve seen. Flavor starts moderately sweet and finishes heavily sweet and lightly acidic and bitter. Palate is medium to full, between oily and creamy, and the carbonation is between soft and lively. It finishes lightly alcoholic, dry and a little sticky on the lips. The hop component could’ve been a bit more complex. A good barley wine but with all the other really great ones available there isn’t much reason to go back to this one.

Dark brown almost black with an average head. Aromas of molasse, brown sugar, and sweet malts. Slightly hoppy, strong in alcohol, strong sweet malty flavor with some oak, carmel, and molasses.

Not my thing. Nice dark color but had way to much of a kick even for me ( i enjoy the hops ).

Very dark brown with a red hue, big and creamy beige head. Aroma of malt and bread, with port and dried fruits. A true barley wine aroma, but a bit simple. Really malty dominated flavour, with lots of sweetness and complex notes of the high alcohol content. After a while, the malt sweetness gets a little cloying like a bad doppelbock. If we had geographically divided sub-styles, I would count this as an English, not an American barleywine.