Kuhnhenn Big N Bold Barley Wine

2006 bottle. I do believe this was infected so I am going to give it a middle of the road score until I get a chance to rerate.

12 oz. bottle - 2006 vintage; riversideak again trying to impress by breaking out a 10%+ brew for us to tick; dark brown, muddy and flat; kind of a yucky, sour brown mess that from some readings seems to be a Kuhnhenn bottling trait; some good things can be found in this malty monster, but overall a mess to me

12-oz. Thanks, RiversideAK! Pours a crystal clear dark brown with bright golden highlights. Headless and laceless. Leggy, fruity, showing some berry notes. Blueberries, red apples. Oranges, pineapples, berries, and all kinds of doughy malt sweetness. Most of these notes return for the mid-palate. Thick, oily, sticky body. Lemony, sharply citric notes permeate as well. Tart finish. Odd little bugger, but still likable and certainly well-made. It’s god-awful huge, that’s for sure. Oh, yeah. Kuhnhenn. Got it.

2006 bottle. Pours a hazy deep orange with a thin head. Aroma is sweet with tons of deep dark sharp crystal malts, sweet overall with lots of dried fruits, estery- raisin, dried apricot, figs, prunes, etc- slight soy oxidation setting in already and an herbal earthy kick. Flavor is more rooty- and herbal- licorice root, among the tons of big sweetness, soy, and fruits- dark tart black cherries, cherry pit and astringent in the end.

2006 bottle shared by Ryan. Darkerish reddish brown with a thin to nonexistent offwhite head. Sweeter nose. Darker malt character. Brown sugar lingers. Light body for the style, but not watery. Sweet and vinous. Fruity. Light astringency. Alcohol. Caramel lingering sweetness.

Bottle shared by BrianK. Pours a dark amber body with a thin white lacing. Huge fruity alcohol notes, over ripe dark fruits plums, and raisin on the drier side. Unrefined sugars and more etoh to finish.

Dark burgundy colored beer, with an initially large, but quickly fading head of foam. Very nice nose smells of rum cake, ripe dark fruits and dried dark fruits, with notes of alcohol. Flavor is too sweet and a bit sour as well. Notes of dark fruits and brown sugar, with rum-like notes. Pretty nice beer, with an impressive finish. Well hidden alcohol.

A- Pours a deep, ruddy, reddish hue with little to no head. S- Smell is very enticing ... huge brown sugar notes, very sweet, a range of fruit from muddled berries to raisins. T- Taste follows the smell, sweet candied fruits towards the begining that only get sweeter throughout the life of the taste. Brown sugar followed by deep, dark fruit underlies the aforementioned sweetness. M- Thick with some carbonation left. D- I like this beer a lot but I think it loses something without the bourbon character. I wish I tried this one before the bourbon barleywine. The main trouble with it is that the bourbon balanced out the sweetness and in this incarnation the sweet fruit notes are left unchecked and amp up so high at the end they become cloying in this extremely rich brew. That being said I still enjoyed this one very much.