General Lafayette 275th Anniversary Ale

Formerly brewed at General Lafayette Inn and Brewery
Style: Barley Wine
Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania USA

Date: 03/22/2008
Mode: Bottle
Source: Tasting, Cellar Party

Appearance: hazy dark ruby red, fine beige head,
Aroma: sweet dark caramel malt aroma, nice fruity tartness,
Overall: sweet fruity malt aroma, dark caramel sweetness, touch of fruity tartness, light earthy balance, peppery alcohol adds extra complexity rather than distraction,

Aroma: 6/10; Appearance: 7/10; Flavor: 6/10; Palate: 7/10; Overall: 13/20
Rating: 3.3/5.0
Drinkability: 7/10
Score: **+/4

22oz, gold waxed topped, bottle shared courtesy of weeare138. Poured a medium reddish brown color with a smaller sized off white head. Aromas of dark fruits, toffee, caramel, wood, green apples, and vanilla. Tastes of dark fruits, brown sugar, and alcohol. Sweet. Very hot with a ton of alcohol in the tastes. Alcohol detracted from what tastes I was able to pick out. This one will definitely improve with a few years under its belt.

Pours a transparent dark copper mahogany with a thin ring of off-white head. Aroma of sweet biscuity pale and caramel malts with rich fruity estery cmplexity. Body starts rich and dark caramely sweet with a good amount of light fruity esters before a drier sweet bready finish. A pretty complex barleywine, but could use some time to age.

Sampled at Barcade Anniversary party. Deep amber beer with a thin white head. Rich nutty plummy aroma. Heavily toasted malts. Very sweet with a lovely rich bready character. A little bit syrupy and sweet. Hops are quite subtle letting the rich sweet malts show off. I quite like it.

Pours ruddy medium brown color with 1-finger khaki head that goes away and never returns. Aroma is nice; caramel malt, prunes, berries, tobacco, mincemeat, plum, blackberry, some feety funky notes. The aroma is very complex. The taste is plummy, pruney, with caramel malt, brown sugary figs, tobacco, cabernet, and slight maple notes, plus some mid-palate hops and funky notes. Remains on the sweet side, and somewhat syrupy. The alcohol is minorly noticeable, but to me it doesn’t detract; rather, it adds to the nobility of this one. With age, this could easily become a perfecto robusto.

Poured deep amber color with a reddish hue. The aroma was sweet and sugary with nice notes of dark fruit. The flavor was fairly sweet and sticky but dries out to make it nice and drinkable. The alcohol is very well hidden. Full bodied. This stuff was very nice.

Thanks Captain Cougar for this rare bottle. Pours black and looks thickish. Chocolate dominates the aroma and provides the first element of taste. The oakiness builds up glass over glass. Not superbley drinakable, but a barleywine with lots of good chocolate, which took me so far.

Bottle thanks to Matt Capone. Pours a mahogany body with a tan head. Dark fruit raisin, sweet caramel malt, big etoh warming, honey and a bit viscous and chewy. Good beer.