Great Lakes Barley Wine

Brewed by Great Lakes Brewing Company
Style: Barley Wine
Cleveland, Ohio USA

Draft at Great Lakes gathering at the Dilly Deli. Poured clear orange copper color with a minimal off-white creamy head that was mostly diminished with fair lacing. Moderate tart fruit, sour citrus hop and alcohol aroma. Medium to full body with a smooth sticky texture. Medium to heavy tart bittersweet flavor with a medium bittersweet finish of long duration. First version, high IBU. I will look for next version to be more balanced for bottle production.

This was the 9th tasted in a 28 bottle bw blind tasting. Poured an almost clear light copper color with a minimal head. Aroma of body odor, citrus , dirty hops, caramel and golden apples. Light malt on the flavor. Citrus hop with a moderate bitterness on the finish. Some alcohol pepper on the end. Light-medium body.

Poured a clear amber color with a small, white head that left light lacing on the glass. Aroma of toffee malts, floral hops, citrus fruits, light honey, vanilla, and some alcohol in the finish. Taste of sweeter caramel up front, citrus fruits, toffee, pine, toasty dough, and moderate bitterness, with a bit of alcohol in the finish.

Tap at the brewpub - very hazy strawberry-colored beer, with substantial head/lacing - apparent hop bitterness in the aroma, with some very bright fruity esters (strawberry and other berries, light notes of citrus) - the first sip is quite off-putting - there is an odd, mossy, dry, bitter character, with some strong marris otter or golden promise malt flavor and a juniper/gin-like character - very odd - underneath this are the high sweetness and fruity flavors characteristic of most middle-of-the-road American barleywines - rather lacking in the complexity department, but it is quite smooth aside from the bitter gin-like flavor.

20080329 Blind tasting notes and score from Cornboy 2nd annual Barleywine Extravaganza. Pissy hops, grassy and tropical, pale color, BO notes, overall mild and underwhelming malts.

On tap at the brewpub: Pours a hazy copper color with a small white head. Aroma, earthy and citrus hops galore, some pine as it warms, and some pale and caramel malts. Flavor, smooth caramel and bready malts flavors up front, sweet to start with the citrus and earthy hops coming in strong on the finish, some pine flavors also developed as it warmed up. Very smooth with quite the bitter kick on the finish.

Shared at the pre-DLD ’08 party. Some syrupy malts at work here. This doesn’t seem that old, but it’s already lost its hop profile. I’ve had astonishing stuff from Great Lakes, but this isn’t one of them. Keep trying.

On tap at the brewery. Nice amber brew, clean body with lively carbonation and nothing cloudy detectable. Resiny hops detectable in the nose, as well as some apricot and brandy. Definitely hot and boozy, and a strongly hop forward BW like Old Guardian. I found it enjoyable and fairly impressive, but it would definitely benefit from aging (bottle it!).