Grand Lake Super Chicken Barley Wine

Brewed by Grand Lake Brewing Co
Style: Barley Wine
Grand Lake, Colorado USA

A brewclub member brought this beer back from Colorado for us to try. Pours a dark amber color with a small head that dies off quickly and doesn’t leave much lacing on the glass. The aroma is very nice - sweet, strong malts with a hint of fruit. The flavor is much the same - lots of sweet and strong malts with a slight hop presence. Extremely well balanced. This is one of the best barley wines I’ve had, and that’s saying a lot. Drinkability is wonderful for 11%. Had it with some stilton cheese - excellent pairing.

22 ounce bottle. Attractive tawny in color. Pleasing aroma of honey covered fruits, caramel and hops. An onslaught of malt and hops in the flavor, rich in both, yet equally balanced with notes of honey covered plums and raisins, chocolate and caramel, fruitcake, juicy hops, resin and pine. Full, coating texture, hiding its potency extremely well. The richest and most balanced barley wine brewed in Colorado. A true "hidden gem" tucked away in the Colorado unknown.

cool label .. pours with some foam, soap like but constant .. . nice stuff, very mellow, abv is done right .. . burnt toffee, chocolate cherry skin, and other dark flavours .. . would age gracefully .. . Brooke shields is gorgeous .. brew would go well with baby back ribs, ..bbq sauce!

bottle, great grape and hops aroma, color is cognac with no head, flavor is a hoppy dark fruit and raisin, great body and dry hop finish, did not notice the alcohol for an 11 abv

Thanks Matt! Pours to a mahogany body with a thin beige head. The aroma is grassy and full of maple syrup and toasty malt. The flavor is a sweet malty barleywine and nice malt. Good moutfeel. Very good.

Bottle. Small tan head that mostly diminished, fair lacing, transparent, no visible carbonation, and a reddish brown hue. Nose was malty, caramel, sweet, hoppy, and alcohol. Flavor was sweet, malty, caramel, vinuous and some hop bitterness. Smooth palate. Medium body.

Cherry orange. Teeny-bubbled ring of foam. Sugared plums, grapey malts, and spruce tips in the aroma. Hint of fruitcake, smoke, and malt dust. Tight carbonation. Slipperiness is coarsened by a touch of coniferous accented bitterness. Alcohol lends some astringency and underlines the more-pungent hop aspects. Cakey with a thickset malt base (maris otter?) that masks much of the polished hop traits, but works to sustain the body. Prickly bitterness conveys a sense of salty licorice candy, which exaggerates the dryness and awakens a hint of chocolate. Marvelously balanced, throughout, with a late but salvaging medley of candied apples, alcohol, and supple malt to go along with the piney hop flash. Tolerably sweet finish of soggy plums and grapey malts capped with a bright hop tease. Not overly interesting, but nicely done.

Hazy dark amber color, to brown. Mature caramel flavor and tea. Medium body strength, good, sweetish, caramel flavor; pleasant fruity hopping. Pleasant but not impressive.