Flying Dog Horn Dog Barley Wine

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

12 oz bottle from the new Flying Dog mix 4pack purchased at Spirits on Rt 9 Toms River. I have copious notes on this one but it all boils down to one thing....ALCOHOL BOMB. This beer was a total let down unless your looking to get real banged up real quick pass this one up and pass it up quick.

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

Bottle at Chris_O’s 19th April 2008 tasting. Pours a cloudy reddish amber. Very sweet, with cola and chocolate malt flavours in the ascendancy. The aroma is similar. Decent weight but not a great barley wine.

Update: Bottle at Andy’s. Deduct two aroma points and add one appearance from 9-4-8-5-15. I think this is real nice, and it was very difficult to determine this was a 10.5% beer....

On the brown side of the spectrum, with an off-white head. Nice sherried malt aroma with a little hop bite to it. Big malty carmel flavor with a hop bite/alcohol finish. I thought it was decent and the alcohol character matched up and blended with the beer.

Dark and sludgy brown; somewhat of a brick-like red edging with a thin tan top of compact cappucchino-like frothyness, fades somewhat feverishly to a thin ring and very minimal spots of lace in a glaring clearish coat. Aroma is of subdued malts rendering some fairly heavy molasses tones mixed with some plum and raisin and bits of smokey-like toffee. Warmth subsides within as some brandy-like alcohol seeps into the nose. Taste has more of the same with a slightly weakened front end but fills up with a dark fruity malty presence across the palate where plum, molasses, and toffee leak into a substraining mix of lightly textured chocolate spices and sugared candy caramel towards the finish. The chocolate tones are light and late with a nice little effective dryness thats favorable and welcomed. Flavors need to be bolder, heavier, richer, what have you, there's not much happening and it's length is tempered. It's feel is comparable with a good medium body and texture and has just enough edge in what could be justified as a hop profile of somekind and its warming of alcohol is sufficiently present within bigger gulps with a slight stinging twinge. A bit tame by my standards, but not bad.

Aroma is of cinnamon and clove baked apple. Nice beer, but is seems to be lacking a little something in the flavor that that is holding it back.

Very high alcohol taste. Very high. Hard to get past that. Even for a barleywine, I found it a hindrance.

this barley wine is cool looking, almost no head, super dark almost maple syrup color, some hops on the nose but not too much sweet caremel , flavor is good malts with dried fruit and a touch of hops to balance it all out. Really nice one really enjoyed it. Bought in Halifax