Lagunitas Olde Gnarly Wine

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

Dark, clear copper, with a smallish white head. Nose is rather sweet, like toffee or caramel, hints of honey. Though this is a fairly fresh bottle, it has all the mellow sweetness and none of the harsh bitter notes of a fresh barleywine. Good deal of honey and caramel in taste, with bits of tobacco and some plums. A dry, almondy bitterness puts it in balance. Slightly slick mouthfeel, but overall soft and pleasant.

it should be news to very few that this brew would have a wonderful fragrant and inticing taste profile. i mean where do you consistantly find a better malt character in any brewer. slick velvet and candy sweet with everything you want in a malt brew and more. so well balanced and my bottle had zero broomstraw attitude. just superfresh and clean tasting aged malt. alcohol taste that doesnt bother. pleased and still slightly surprised that ths hop character is a little mute. but again we do have a wonderfully complex and tasty brew with find body very good balance and fine sipping warmth even on a warm day.

Pours a nice reddish brown color. Aroma was very strong, of dark fruits, sweet malts and alcohol. Flavor was very malty, not all hopped up like many other american barleywines.

A lovely, dark amber from a bottle from Kenwood Liqours. Light tan head, very malty aroma with caramels and candy. many barleywines (in th US) call themselves Barleywine "stye" - some are really barleywines disguising themselves for public consumption and some are really not barleywines, bgive the drinker a good idea of what they ar taling about. This is one of the latter. A strongh caramel and stong hops, but very drinkable comared to some of the real BW’s out there.

THOUGHTS: I was amazed to be trying a Lagunitas that wasn’t an IPA or an American strong ale. But boy, does it still pack on the hops. A nice barley wine, but nothing I haven’t had before. Really not all that much different than the other Lagunitas beers. TECHNICAL: Bottle. Poured a clear, medium to dark orangy red with a small to average, off-white head that mostly diminished and left fair lacing at first and then virtually none. The aroma was moderate to heavy caramel malt, light to moderate pine and citrus hops, a little fruitiness and alcohol. The initial flavor was very lightly sweet, lightly acidic and bitter; while the finish was moderately sweet, lightly acidic, and moderate to heavily bitter with an average to long duration. There was some sort of citrus then light caramel malt then very sweet malt with a little fruitiness, then some pine and a final finish of citrus hops. The medium to full body was sort of syrupy with lightly fizzy carbonation and a light to moderate alcoholic finish.

American style BW, but a bit less hoppy and maltier than bigfoot. Malty aroma, plums and raisins. Flavor matches, with a balanced bitterness. Heavy mouthfeel, smooth finish. Prettttttttttty good.

22oz bottle. Pours a clean clear amber/orange color with nice medium sized head. Aroma was sweet with caramel,light vanilla, and light hop notes dancing around. The body was thick and chewy which was perfect. The taste was just like the aroma with sweet malty light fruity flavor. Real easy to drink.

Coppery/ruby with minimal head. Brothy, almost meaty body on this one. Caramel, vanilla syrupy sticky body combine on this bedtime brew. Warming and toothcoating, with a sweetness buffering a latent bittering dryness. Alcohol provides a medicinal warmth. Nice for the style.