Full Sail Old Boardhead Barleywine

2007... pours a hazy rich amber with a small light tan head and spotty lacing. aroma is heavily malted... caramel-y cereal grains, some honey, grapefruit, orange, grass and a touch of alcohol/spicy burn. the palate is prickly with spicy hops and certainly bearably sweet. flavors of iced tea, pine, lots of citrus-y fruits, malt/caramel, a mild bitterness and a biting finish. medium body but light enough to be easy to drink. spiciness and hoppy dryness help to thin it out. no sticky residue!...

Pours an amber color with medium off-white head. Aroma is intense caramel, light toffee, and mild hops. Taste follows suit but their is more fruitiness to be discovered then what you get from the aroma. Carbonation is mild and the alcohol is well hidden, but there is a bit more tanginess in the finish then I’d like.

Thanks, TheCheeseMan. 06 and 07 Bottles! 06 Bottle: Pours a nice amber color with a medium frothy off-white head and a little lacing. Aroma is a little carmale and toffee, with some citrus and hoppiness that balances things out. Taste is about the same, very balanced with some bitterness

Finally, a Full Sail beer I can agree with the crowd on. I’ve been waiting for this day, as if somehow I can officially recognize my transition to manhood. The Old Boardhead Barleywine Ale is a full, rich beer, bearing down on its drinker with a lot of robust flavors, just the way I like it. This furiously red brew is misleading at first, peering up from the glass with an uninspiring gray head. But look at the glass askance and you’ll see the deep ruby red beer sitting underneath, like a pool of dark magma. From this tectonically appealing beer comes a more lighthearted scent of cream soda - oddly weak, but oily in its fragrant texture, with a deep, dark chocolate element and a deep fruit flavor soaked in sugar, a lot like the center of a Fig Newton. Not bad, but the flavor outpaces the smell. Most barleywines I’ve tried were strongly or overwhelmingly boozy, but the Full Sail’s ethanol gush doesn’t kick in until after the midpoint of the sip, and even then fades way quickly thereafter to reveal a toothsome aftertaste. This is a sweet beer, and the cream soda quality appears again, mixed with a honey sweetness and a light sugar mead quality. Pair the strong sugars with a heady alcohol content and this beer is as strong as it gets while maintaining a comfortable composure. I also get a little pine flavor, but otherwise the remaining tastes are hard to pin down, other than saying it is sweet and intoxicating in more than one way. In a way it reminds me of a heavy and gluttonous barleywine from Three Floyds, only that this might be a little more subdued and a little less complex. But still, good, heavy, tasty drinking.

A very malty and strongly hopped bareleywine. Not syrupy and cloying like most. Pretty easy drinking with a good warming alcohol kick.