Lagunitas Olde Gnarly Wine

Whew! This stuff is to strong for me! Booze was all in my mug! At first the hops are flowing, I am happy, then POW!!! Booze.........wife loved it

twenty’aught-8 version, so didn’t last long. 9.7% this year!. cloudy amber, thick small brown head with good lacing. sweet malty, caramelly, hoppy, a little towards "old" hops, but stll rather fresh for a BW. flavor is malty, accented by flowery hops, and a nice dose of bitterness, also caramelly sweetness, faint old beer taste too. ends sweet and malty. aftertaste is dry sweet and malty. even though it’s not that dry in the flavor, you can feel the dryness in the aftertaste. lots of everything in this one.

(Bottle) Pours light hazy deep red with a pale nougat coloured head. The aroma is of caramel and fudge up front with undertones of dark and tropical fruits like dried apricots, dried pineapples and prunes alongside a wet crisp bread-like oxidation. Sherry and burning alcohol also notable. Grapefruity and resinous hops. Bit cheesy. The flavour is near medium sweet and medium bitter with tones of caramel, fudge, dried/dark fruits, resinous/citric hops and wet crisp bread. Dry peppery alcohol blends well with spicy, bitter hops in the aftertaste. The mouthfeel is juicy and sticky with a light carbonation. Medium to full bodied.

Twenty ’Aught-9. A very nice American-style barleywine, if a bit generic, when fresh. There are a ton of barleywines out there and it takes a lot to stand out from the crowd of good barleywines. Gnarlywine doesn’t quite make it into the arena of the great ones, but this is a fresh bottle and only time will tell where the beer will go as it matures. The beer pours a beautiful shade of red with a healthy off-white head that gives way to a pretty pattern of suds sitting atop the liquid and nice lacing. The aroma is mostly citric/piney hops and caramel-sweet, malty alcohol. The flavor has a pretty good hop bite, but it’s already backed off a bit in the months that I’ve had this bottle. The malt is strong without being too sticky and sweet. It’s a good barleywine that sticks to the middle of the road but does it well. It’ll be fun to see how it ages.

Classic BW -- not too sweet. Chewy mouth feel. Long finsh and after taste that can hang on to. Nice creamy off white head.

On tap. Pours a copper color. Smells of malt. Light head. Sweet with flavors of malt hops and caramel.

This bottled brew from a bottle shop poured a small sized head of foamy finely sized tan colored bubbles that were mostly lasting and left behind a transparent strongly carbonated brown colored body and thick foamy lacing. The mild aroma was malt hop. The semi-thick mouth feel was tingly at the start with a mellow finish. The balanced flavor contained notes of malt hops caramel and mildly vinous. Delicious and one I would certainly buy again.

mostly clear copper with a small fine tan head. sharp sweet malt is very up-front, with a hint of grass -- basically smells like a caramel apple. taste is similar, a hoppy caramel mess. it’s too thickly sweet -- i.e., cloying. but still good, leaving a sharp bittersweet finish. somehow body is almost thin, and carbonation is minimal.