’06 Vintage Good yellow head on orange-golden beer. Very hoppy (USA) nose, cookies and quite some malts. Hopoil, hopcookies or -cake, diverse dried fruits (mango, fig, peach). Burning MF, quite aggressive and harming the balance. OK, maybe enjoyable, but not really great.

Sampled at the Arizona Craft Brewers Guild 2008 Strong Beer Fest, on February 17, at the Mesa Amphitheatre.

Scottsdale location. Pours to a very viscous, slowly settling, dark hazy amber body with a tall creamy, foamy off-white head with nice retention and lacing. The aroma is sweet barley, toffee, caramel, and bright citrus grapefruit hops punch through. Very smooth drinking at 11.5%. Sweet but not too bitter. The beer was very drinkable.

GABF ’07. Pours hazy tawny with a large, frothy, light brown head, lasting with good lacing. Aroma is heavy malt (cookie, caramel, nutty), heavy hops (perfume, pine, resin), average yeast (sweat, earth) with notes of alcohol and peach. Full bodied, alcoholic texture, lively carbonation, and a bitter finish. Average duration, light sweetness, moderate acidity and bitterness.

Draft at Tempe location. Pours with a hazy amber orange body with a huge off white and lasting head. There is particulate but it took a good holding up to the sun to see it, I just assumed it was there. Aroma is all hops, floral and piny both. I guess there is some sweet malt there but it is overwhelmed. Flavor comes in quite hoppy, if this is aged I bet it’s a monster fresh. The initial impression is all pacific northwest hops but there may be others at play here, but the malt in this barley wine is playing a small part. Finish is fairly bitter and lightly sweet. This is great stuff, strikes me more as an imperial IPA but what the hell do I know. I had two glasses today and I’ll be back the beginning of next month hopefully for two more.