Lagunitas Olde Gnarly Wine

Brewed by Lagunitas Brewing Company
Style: Barley Wine
Petaluma, California USA

Bottled. Burgundy coloured. Unclear. Dense light brown head. Sweetness, alcohol, prunes, spice and light dustyness in the aroma. Flavour is full of alcohol, prunes, ripe fruits, alcohol, spices, light caramel and sweetness. Medium to full bodied. Is good bitter in the end and has a pleasant burning on the lips in the late stages of the beer. Just my kind of beer, which I could drink again and again.

Poured from bomber. Pours a hazelnut-and-ruby-red color with an attractive creamy tan head. Beautiful pour! Nutty aroma, with a sizeable helping of flowery hops. Flavor is full-bodied and vibrant, and carbonation is tastefully subdued. I tasted walnut, dark fruit, light caramel, wood. I keep sensing traces of milk chocolate as well. Very, very tasty. Finishes with a warming touch, probably the well-hidden alcohol. If I were to have one minor complaint, I would say the body is a touch thin. But overall, this is absolutely delicious. Olde Gnarly Wine is simultaneously a great intro into the world of big beers for newbies, as well as a very satisfying beer for BW-style junkies.

22oz bottle. Pours a deep reddish-brown with a thin off-white head. Aroma is sweet, with a huge roasted malt scent complemented by apricot, spices, caramel, and a noticeable bit of alcohol. Taste is medium-bodied and dry, with a sweet character of dark fruit, roasted malt, caramel, and spices turning to a long finish of warming alcohol and a bit of a hoppy quality. The hoppy components are a nice twist on a barley wine, but the character feels a little thinner as a result.

An intense and heady aroma of toasted walnuts, brown sugar, and apricots. Pour is a deep hazelnut brown with a bone-white, wispy head. Overall flavor is sweet and hoppy with a bitter finish that lingers for some time. Notes of figs, hickory smoke, and butterscotch predominate with a slight minerality throughout. While barleywine is typically too intense for my tastes, this one has the richness and complexity without the heaviness. Would pair wonderfully with coq au vin and spetzel on a cool, rainy evening.

Red in color with floating snowflake like particles. A couple of sips in and I can feel the alcohol already. This is a strong beer. Aroma of dried fruit, figs, raisins etc. Strong bittersweet flavor that gets much better as you drink it. Flavor changes to apricots as the bitterness fades in the distance. This is definitely a sipping beer. Nice, but barley wines are not necessarily my favorite brew.

From bomber an orangish browm with a small beige head. Aroma was lots of malt and resin hops. Flavor was a sweet orange with heavy malt and a hoppy bitterness.

Deftly done... on draught @ Taco Mac.... brownish/copperish color, nice rich and substantial aromas that are both sweet and bitter at the same time. Hugely sweet and almost heavy, though not quite... just right. Just at the end the hops show up in just the right amount. A reall good BW....

On draught. Deep ruby red/brown with almost no head. Aroma of figs, caramel, sweet malts, and various fruits. Sweet toffee, caramel, alcoholic, with a very thick and creamy mouthfeel. I was surprised by the almost non-existence of hops here; not necessarily a bad thing, but it might have been nice to balance out the sweetness. I’d like to get a bomber of this and let it get a bit older.