Hoppy Old Sandbag Barley Wine

On Tap @ Lucky Baldwin’s Barleywine fest 2005

Lightly clouded auburn appearance, good head formation. Malty creamy vanilla aroma. Pretty hoppy bitter palate, underlying vanilla creaminess and light bicscuitiness. Hoppy bitter finish. Definitely more hops than malt.

4/23/05. On tap at Lucky Baldwin’s Barley Wine Festival ’05 in Pasadena, CA 4/23/05. Deep orange-caramel in color, lightly hazy. Dense, cream-tan head with very nice, sticky and mostly uniform lacing with decent retention and a generally very good, shimmering crystal sugary dust appearance. Good but fast reverse lacing. A high 4 in appearance-- it just misses some of the WOW factor with the head diminishing a bit as it does. Nose is sweet sugary crystal and fruit-- light berries and medium nectary hops. Taste is a bitter prickly superhop, piney and not much caramel (where’d it go?). A faint berry presence. Really creamy mouthfeel and some nice dryness on the finish, still super bitter and tingly. Very strongly alcoholic and sharp with piney sap hops and not near enough malt backbone. The creaminess, impressive as it is, fights to stand up to the alcohol and pungent hop. A bit thin in appearance, seemingly overattenuated. Decent.