Glacier Big Woody Barleywine

Brewed by Glacier BrewHouse
Style: Barley Wine
Anchorage, Alaska USA

FOBAB 09. Pours red/brown with almost no head. Aroma of Jim Beam, woody, caramel malt. Decent flavor, but nothing special compared to the rest of the beers I had this day. Boozy in the flavor. It was cool to see them bring beer from Alaska for this occasion though.

On tap at Bistro Barrel Aged Fest. Pours dark amber with a thin beige head and a sweet malt aroma. The flavor is sweet malt with a lot of bourbon in it, providing some heat and a little sourness at the finish.

FOBAB 09. Pours ruby with a small off-white head. Aroma is strongly of Jim Beam, wood, sugar, malt, and caramel. Taste starts off with a huge Jim Beam character that never subsides and dominates the entire beer. There are some characters of wood and caramel, but they are extremely muted. There is also an undelying earthiness that doesn’t quite work. Has a base of dry malt that is dominated by the bourbon flavor. Lingering taste of more Jim Beam. The alcohol is well masked behind the flavor, but it does have a nice warming effect. If you don’t like Jim Beam, you won’t like this beer. It’s all bourbon, with very little of the actual beer still there. Not impressed, at all.

draft @ hard liver ’09 - with all the buildup, this sucker fell flat on its face IMO; clear, amber, slight white head; seemed like a wheat wine, BW mix and i really don’t dig wheat wines; lemony hops, woody, light caramel; thin texture, mild flavor profile; eh; as Mike LaFontaine would say, "Wha’ Happen?"

On tap at Hard Liver Barleywine Festival 09, Brouwer’s Cafe. Crystal clear brightly rubied medium amber with very little head and no lace. Creamy medium body. Vinous, boozy nose. Tons of vanilla-y oak on the mid-palate, without much company, other than some notes of caramel. Mild dry finish. This can’t possibly be their best batch of this stuff.

clear auburn brown, rim of a head. aroma is alcohol, bourbon and woody. taste is sweet. slightly numbing palate.

On tap at Toronado for Barleywine fest ’09, then again at the Bistro in Hayward for Barrel Aged Fest ’09. This is another amazing barleywine from Alaska. Big Woody, huhhuh huhhuh (Butthead voice). Clear dark orangish-brown color with a nice beige head. Aroma is sweet malt, caramel, port, bourbon, vanilla, and oak. Sweet and malty flavor with toffee, vanilla, bourbon, spiced cider, wood (huhhuh) and some hop bitterness. Really long finish. Medium-full body with a very smooth yet lively mouthfeel, really nails it on the palate. Alcohol present but not too dominant. I would like to encounter Big Woody again in the future - the beer I mean, definitely not the other kind.