Heavyweight Old Salty

Formerly brewed at Heavyweight Brewing Company
Style: Barley Wine
Ocean Township, New Jersey USA

Pours reddis brown with almost no head. Aroma is big malt. taste is SWEET sugar, and more sweetness. Gross, overwhelming sweetness. Alcohol aftertaste. aweful.

2004 bottle. Orangish brown color with no head. Aroma is malty and alcohol. Flavor is a decent malt core with some alcohol. Pretty generic barleywine.

RERATE: 2005 bottle - Brown cinnamony color with absolutely NO head. No ring, no swirls, no nothing. Aroma is yeasty and estery. Body is virtually flat. Alcoholy and spicy. This was crap. 4/2/4/2/8

Huge head, hazy ruddy beer, pitiful label, twistoff. Makes the appearance rating a wash. Malt and alcohol dominate the oroma with underlying fruit. The head won’t die. Can’t be killed. Suitable for packing glassware. Mellow, sweet, boozy, caramel. This wasn’t the beer to finish the session with. Finishes sweet and caramel. Weighty.

Too much variation in this one form batch to batch. Surpisingly sweet for a beer named salty.

2004 bottle. 11/3/05. Pours dark ruby/brown, with a hugh off-white head that fades to a cover. Nice lacing. Aroma is toffee, raisins, prunes, and molases. Flavor is dark fruit, candi sugar, toffee, cookie dough, bready, very sweet, cloyingly so, and a bit salty. Orange, citrus hops show up only slightly in the finish. The texture is very smooth and thick, very coating. I was initially worried that this would be over-carbonated due to the enormous head, but luckily that was unfounded, soft cabonation. Alcohol is very well hidden, just slightly warming in the long finish. Unfortunately, this is just too sweet and unbalanced to be a great BW. I will have to retry this when it is young.

Bottle: 2004 vintage courtesy of Cornboy via trade. Big malty aroma with caramel, toffee, banana bread, honey, raisin, and fruit (maybe cherry). Alcohol is prevelent in the nose as well. Pours a cloudy orangish-brown with an off-white head that diminishes to a ring around the edge of the glass. Flavor is a bit of a let down. Everything in the aroma seems muted in the flavor. Flavors of caramel, banana bread, raisin, and hints of apple up front just aren’t as strong as I was expecting. Finishes with a woody bitterness and moderate alcohol flavor and warming affect.

Thanks to Dorwart for the trade. 2004 Bottle: Dark chestnut color with a thin wispy off-white head and minimal lacing. Aroma of toasted malt, bread and caramel. Rich and sweet mouthfeel with lots of malt and caramel flavoring. Nice amount of hops and alcohol to balance it. The bitterness is less pronounced by the end of the glass. The finish is sweet and salty with a bit of citrus. This is an enjoyable Barley Wine.

Bottle acquired per Jeffin7 in a trade from awhile back. Pours a murky brownish color. Aroma big on caramel, malts, dark fruits, and a bit of hops too. Flavor is more dominated by the malt presence, but toffee, caramel, and alcohol make sure to be known also. Pretty easy drinker at 11%.