Lagunitas Olde Gnarly Wine

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

Clear deep red with large beige head. Hoppy aroma with caramel, ripe fruits and pine notes. Sweet and hoppy flavor with grapefruit, caramel, pine and malty notes. Ends solid bitter.

Dark amber ruby, slight haze. Dissapating, slightly persisting head and lace. Big nose of caramel, fat malts, overripe fruit, candy. Full body, creamy, rich, sweet, caramelly malts, fruit/candy notes, hops try to interrupt to balance and do a bit in the end but this is a big multilayered malt feast. Drinks very well, they nailed the carbonation, making the palette perfect for me, gives it vibrancy, addictivness. Good BW. Memorable.

11 oz. draft at the Galway Tribes (Frankfort, IL). Poured a deep dark caramelized brown with some darker notes, a tan prominent head that stuck around and laced extremely well. Initial aromas were more vague than expected, with a nice sweet malty feel and some smaller bitter hop notes. Initial taste is full of intense English sweet malts. A fairly heavy body that is very enjoyable, the large malty sweetness being new to me in my first entrance into the realm of barleywines. Some fruitiness and some honey sweetness enter as the malt really provides the show here. Still, I’m very happy with this brew.

Deep copper/brown/red, with little head. There is very little head. The beer looks good, but there is nothing very distinct about this beer. Very fruity flavor with a very large malt aroma. The hop aroma is not there. The beer seems that it will not be that hoppy or even bitter, for a barley wine. Strong presence of figs, and dark fruits, but still not an awesome aroma. Just a strong malt aroma. There is an aroma of alcohol, but that is coming on very strong as the beer warms up. Very strong fruit presence at the beginning, but the flavor is destroyed by the alochol. The hop flavor is also destroyed by the strong presence of alochol. I realize that barley wines are very alcoholic, but this should not get in the way of the hops. The malts are not muted by the alcohol and there is a nice sweetness left on the tongue. Very creamy and smooth. This beer is pretty good. I am not a huge barley wine fan, but this beer has a nice dark fruit/malt characteristic to it. I enjoyed it, and think this is a decent brew.

Spicey hops dominate along with a bold slightly fruity texture, taste is a wonderful mildly sweet fruity malty flavor with great hp presence,a fruity malty hoppy finish,as good a deal as you can get for the price

Light fruity aroma. Rich foamy head and reddish brown color. Flavor of sweet honey roasted malt. Lightly bitter. Rye-like flavors. Lightly alcoholic. Mildly thick palate - mild carbonation. A mild barleywine.

Pours caramel brown with minimal light tan head. Aromas of brown sugar, caramel, and slight hops. Sweet malty flavor with hints of grapefruit. Not as hoppy as a lot of American barley wines, more true to the style. Full body with minimal carbonation and a thick, syrupy, stick mouthfeel. A decent barley wine that I will probably have again.

Bottle. Pours a hazy dark reddish-amber with a slightly yellow head. Huge aroma, full of sweet malt, dark fruit, hops, and spices. Taste is also quite sweet, of malt and candied fruit, with bitter hops notes, and hints of wood. Thick mouthfeel. Light lingering bitterness. Very tasty and a little unusual.