Harpoon 100 Barrel Series #04 - Barleywine

Formerly brewed at Harpoon Brewery
Style: Barley Wine
Boston, Massachusetts USA

12oz bottle, purchased at the brewery. poured into my snifter with a vivid orange/copper with a thick white head. The prominant aroma is orange or grapefruit, with some hop resin smell as well. Starts off fairly sweet, with piney hoppiness gradually taking over. Finishes sweet. Body is much thinner than I expected. Not exceptional, but worth sampling again.

Courtesy of Pailhead. Bottle states 04’ session. Slightly murky copper, minimal head. Alcohol up front, with fruity esters and caramel coming through the more it warms. Flavor has a big caramel/mollasses character. Slight oxidation. Tons of residuel sweetness. Pretty one-dimensional, but not cloying. decent overall.

(Bottle (100 bbl encore, 2006) from <A HREF=http://www.ratebeer.com/Place/massachusetts/w target=blank>Julio’s Liquors) Hoppy and sweet...Pours lightly hazy goldiish orange with two fingers of off-white head. Aroma is mostly pine and grapefruit rind. Mouthfeel quite smooth, medium-full, some stickiness in finish. Nice lacing. Flavor is mostly pine with a bit of grapefruit rind overlaying light candy-malt sweetness. Alcohol well-hidden. Pretty good, seems underrated. Strong hoppiness similar to a big IPA.

2006 bottle. Clear orange color with a surface-skimming off-white head, some thin bands of lacing. Aroma of pine and citrus hops on top of toffee malts with a bit of apricot and grape notes. Some alcohol vapors burn in the nose. Flavor is predominately citrus zest and resiny hops. A little chalky and astringent however in the palate. Key word here is resin. The high bitterness makes this similar to a 2IPA in character. Was never that impressed with Harpoon in general, but all things considered (price was $9 per six), not a bad selection for a high ABV hop bomb.

12oz Bottle: Pours a very pale color for a barley wine. Very interesting aroma of lactic notes, big swiss cheese is there. The flavor has funky, slightly tart lactic suggestions upfront, followed by a subtle butterscotch sweetness, a peppery spiceyness, and a later, slightly grapefruit like dryness. Very interesting barley wine.

12 oz bottle. Very pale amber-orange beer with a thin white head. Perhaps the palest barleywine I’ve ever seen. Aroma is sweet and malty, pale malt with some light earthy/herbal hop aroma. Light honeyish character. Flavour is quite peppery and alcoholic with a distracting sourness that doesn’t really do it for me. Green grapes. Too thin and entirely lacking in character. As it warms the thinness and sourness are amplified, neither of which are desirable.

Bottle. Crystal clear amber with a thin white head. Hoppy aroma. Pine, slightly floral, sticky sweetness. Smells like a malty IPA. Bitter almond flavor. Again, sweet, piney, floral. Lasting bitterness on the palate. The finish is the best part of this beer. Syrupy palate, good carbonation. This is a very average barley wine. This beer is definitely drinkable, but totally lacking in complexity. Worth a try, that’s it.

[draft @ Bukowski’s] Clear amber color with a short white layer of bubbles. Aroma is piney, slightly alcoholic and sweet. Flavors are malty, with caramel sweetness, almost bready. Bitter, sort of astringent hops presence, lasts quite a while on the palate. Not bad, but not outstanding either.