Heavyweight Old Salty

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

2005 bottle (12oz) from markgugs - thanks, Mark! The faintest of "pfft" on the opening let me know that there’d be little carbonation in this baby, and that turned out to be the case. A very dark pour, ruby to mahogany, with just a few bubbles. Nose of nuts, figs, brown sugar, and spice. Pleasant mingling of the flavors, but I have to say that the beer lacks liveliness and is a bit too thin and slick to drink. Still interesting, but can’t rate it higher than this.

2004 version @ Coles Barleywine festival Buffalo NY Poyrs a murky brown with copper hue. Sweet molasses aroma. Caeramel, brown sugar notes also. Slight tart taste & again with brown sugar finish

June 2006 - 2004 version. Thanks to eaglefan538 for sharing as a birthday treat! Beer pours dark brown, virtually no head, lacing. Aroma is sweet, fruity. Complex taste, dark fruits, caramel, brown sugar taste...with that Heavyweight signature sour taste that fits this beer nicely. Very little carbonation or hops, though. But overall, I likey!

From a 03 bottle. Pours murky reddish/copper color. Aroma of dark fruits, raisins, molasses and a hint of alcohol. The flavor is more raisins, alcohol and a hint of vanilla. Pretty sweet but not overly sweet.

Mesa Gathering October o7. Two bottles vintage 03 and 05 coutesty of Footy and Dorwart. All my notes say is there is an abundant amount of alcohol and tastes and smells like the sweet caramel you would find on a candy apple. Good Stuff

Thanks to Dickinsonbeer i was able to also enjoy a nice 12oz bottle of this on christmas as well. It pours a dark brown with a mild redish tint. there was a thin head in the begining but it faded right away. It had an aroma which was nice and sweet with a rich molassas like and some mild fruits. as i started to drink it i realized right away why it was called Old Salty, because every time you take a sip you get a nice salty and sweet bitterness on the tip of your tounge. It was full of caramel malt and pitted fruits, and the salt does leave a nice impression in the back of your mouth but it is very pleasing. Thanks alot paul for sending me this beer.

12-oz., ’04. Thanks, Kim! Thick rubied dark amber, brightly translucent. Slim ring of white foamy film. Laceless. Huge sweet cherry and red pitted tree fruit nose. Awesome suspended small bubbles hanging in the glass. This beer looks like time just stopped. Thick and sweet body right from the attack. Lovely rolling cherry, caramel, peach, bits of raisin and port on the mid-palate. Long toasty finish. Really quite lovely.

November 2007. Poured from a 12 oz. Deep mahogany red pour. Toffee, bathroom, citrus fruits and sweet bonfire smoke on the nose; very woodsy, with a thorough tang of barbecue and rare meat. Sticky, lightly oxidized. Flavors of rich malt, substantial whiskey, caramel, and subdued but still salient hops in earth and barky notes. Palate is at first highly and abrasively carbonated; with effort, thick and syrupy. Warming finish stops well short of alcohol burn. Pleasant, though certainly in decline. Thanks for sharing, Ken! 8/4/6/4/13 3.5

September 2008. Think this is a 2005. A robust spirit like chestnut pour. Evocative and textured wine-like and brandy-cake sweet aroma. Vinegary and salty, with an abundance of wood, the oxidation really creeps in, but lends a mostly pleasant effect on these heaviest of malts, which I think is the way it’s intended to play out in the English traditional examples. Toffee and citrus hued shades of bright sweetness make up a velvety flavor, that’s soft and refined, really full of oxidation, and to a more positive sherry-like effect than I can recall elsewhere. Fat, oily caramel malts, rare meat, and port-like in sweetness, though at times more closely similar to a good and acidic dry Cabernet. Pineapple, sometimes; it really is acidic. Wet and oily palate; uncarbonated; medium-full, and pleasantly alcoholic. Finishes dry with some cookie and chocolate malt sweetness, and some pithy cherry pit bitterness; quite refined throughout. Thanks Jason! 8/3/8/4/16 3.9