Flying Dog Horn Dog Barley Wine

Brewed by Flying Dog Brewery
Style: Barley Wine
Frederick, Maryland USA

12oz, no date. Clear deep ruby brown with some floaties and a short-lived beige head. It’s been a while since I’ve had one of these, and Duane helped me out with this. Smells better than I remembered. Plenty of raisins, toffee, and anise (to a lesser extent) to go around. Alcohol is not even trying to hide, and the spice element I’m picking up might be the alcohol, but I can’t tell. There is also a dry wood characteristic in there. Flavor continues with hints of tobacco. Raisins and scorched caramel dominate, though there is still the snise and dry wood. Light tart cherries emerge as this warms, getting a little more vinous as well. Finish is semi dry with bitterness peaking at a 3 that lingers a bit. Full body with light carbonation. Pleasant surprise--much better than I remember it.

12 oz, vintage 07C. Uncloudy, dark brown with ruby highlights, and a small mostly lasting head. Aroma is raisins, moonshine, vegetal corn and spicy molasses. Flavor is similar with some caramel and orange-grassy hops on the finish. Creamy smooth palate is medium-heavy.

2002 vintage bottle, tasted 11/16/03. Poured nice layer of pinprick bubbles, like a nitro pull, that dissolved into a thin layer of bubbles posing as a head. Dark reddish-brown body. Big smell of coffee malts, raisin and plum flavors, very chewy, with a subtle hop balance. Still, none of these makes for a great barleywine compared to the others, but then it's a style in which there's a lot of competition to go "bigger," innit?

Vintage 2003B. Originally rated March 14, 2005. Deep ruby brown pour, with no head and weak lacing. Practically still. Sweet plain malt aroma. Very sugary with a musty background. Finishes grassy. A little bit of raspberry chocolate. Alcohol is a little too strong on the tongue. Not very much hops profile. Re-rating another slightly older bottle. I’m more impressed this time around, it’s a very honorable English-style.

Cellar rating. 12oz Bottle. 2003B. Purchased in February 2005. Tasted on July 28, 2008. Light spritz and then a pour into the glass of red ochre, with a fringe in gold and a rim in off-white. Aroma is oxidized, but maintains some very pleasurable caramel, ripe plum and pear, and a bit of cheap brandy. Not bad. Flavor holds spiciness, heat, and a rich caramel body. More complex cocoa powder dust, almond paste, and sponge pudding hold up the majority of the body. A bit of dust, oxidation and celery seeds feel out the depth of the flavor. Still hot and burgeoned with a bit too many esters. Yet, the prickly carbonation keeps it alive and lets the well-melded malt character show. Palate is fairly balanced, but edges sweet and warm. Interesting to try at five years, but nothing I’d get overly excited about hanging onto.

Pours a dark brown with a small off white head. Big fruity nose, lots of dark malts, grapes and apples. Light bready yeast aromas too. The flavor is rich molasses and heavy malty fruity thickness. Very sweet on the palate, just pounds at you relentlessly. The alcohol is apparent pretty much the whole way through. Just a litle over he top sweet. The thick molasses flavors are just too much. Needs more balance to really enjoy this brew. A little disappointed.

Deep burgundy hue. Astonishingly alcoholic and malty nose providing a suggestion of chocolate, black licorice and pit fruit, but mainy just a huge spark of alcohol. Flavor is heavily rich, but still relatively light in body and texture. Sweet and malt accented with sugared fruit flavors and a mild chocolate hint. The unfortunate combination of low hop flavor and bitterness matching an overly sweet barley wine with poorly hidden alcohol. I’m not sure what this is trying to be.

BLAH! Terrible barley wine. While I am not big on the style to begin with, this is terrible. Very metallic and stale aroma of dark malt. Pour was a murky dark brown with a one finger off white head. Taste was strong dark malt with hints of licorice and metal. Imagine putting a good barley wine in a glass, dropping 10 pennies in it and letting it sit for a few days. That’s what this is.

Pour is a black with a small tan head. Aroma is deffinatly licorice and dark chocolate. Flavor is about the same. Some chocolate with tons of dark fruit and molasses. A decent barley wine and the only negative is the hops are a no show. Still one to seek out just not the best of its kind.