Lafayette Big Boris Barleywine

Brewed by Lafayette Brewing Company
Style: Barley Wine
Lafayette, Indiana USA

Thanks to Bob, Michelle, and mostly my baby Jana for the 12th annual Indiana Microbrewers Festival today! From the bottle @ the fest. Had both the ’97 and ’98 offerings. Nose of caramel, fruit, candy, vanilla, flowers, alcohol, and toffee. The brew is a cloudy amber with yeasmen floating about like sea monkeys in my glass. The tall off-white creamy head is fully lasting with exceptional lace. This brew is extremely complex. Nothing really missing...it’s all there. The full soft body is syrupy. The finish feels alcoholic. My favorite sample of the fest, definitely over the top!

1997 version on tap at the Indiana Brewer’s Guild Festival. I’ve had this once before, a fresh version, and wasn’t taken with it. However, 10+ years of age revealed this to be a marvelous beer, and a highlight of the festival. In hindsight, I should have kept drinking this rather than standing in line for Dark Lord. Onto the beer: notes of raisin and fig dominate the nose and the palate, where a sweet English style barleywine enters the picture with caramel, toffee, and vanilla mingled with dried cherry and more fig. Chewy, rich, and I imagine a wonderful complement to a creme brulee or flan. Superb.

Thin lacy head. dark and Hazy, rich on the palate, Flavors of fruit and honey.

Sample at Indiana Microbrewers Festival - 2004 from draft and 1997 from a bottle back to back - Aroma is honey, caramel and earthy hops. Pours muddy brown with no head. Flavor matches aroma with the earthy flavors going more towards wet mulch. Palate is crisp and tart. The difference between the two vintages (besides 7 years) would be that the hops had faded in both aroma and flavor. The palate on the 97 was very smooth and creamy. A tasty brew at 3 years and a damn fine brew after 10!

Tap @ GTMW. Mostly hazy with a bright orange glow and a thin, icy white head. Hoppy aroma for the majority, teaming with honey, pine, peat and a lemon grass undercurrent. Medium to full bodied. Accentuated hop profile couples with a rich caramel presence. Some cherry toffee chews add character to the palate clinging substance. Rich and sweet and well balanced. Hints of orange rind and rosemary creep up on the tail end. Fairly complex and enjoyable.

The aroma was bitter. The appearance reminded me of dark urine. There was no carbonation. It had an overwhelming alcohol taste. But it was overall very smooth.

Poured a hazy gold with a small off white head and some nice lacing on the glass. Perfumey citrus hops (both sweet and tart), more fruit, and alcohol as well in the aroma. Sweet and burning alcohol taste, taste of sweet malt, orange peel, dry finish.

(draft- Indiana brewers fest) Hazy gold brown ale with a nice grapey hopey aroma. Great vinous tatste with sweet malts and a nice grapefruit hops finish. Good body and balance.