Lagunitas Olde Gnarly Wine

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

’08 Release, stll very fresh, breezy, and with a fruity, 8.5-caliber flavor. Definitely has the character of a young, fresh BW, and I love it.

Bottle. Pours a briliant deep amber with a large long lasting light tan head that leaves great lacing. Aroma of sweet caramel, toffee, and a hint of citrus. Taste is the same as aroma with a touch of dark fruit and a hint of smooth alcohol. Full mouthfeel with a moderate well balanced bitterness and well hiden alcohol. Very good.

22 oz bottle via Roth’s. Pours a clear dark reddish brown with an average sized beige head. Nose is candyish, alcoholic, with toffee. Tastes pretty close to what i got from the aroma. Starts and ends very sweet, with some dark currants, molasses, toffee, a bit of roastiness, and some pine/citrus hops. Finish and aftertaste are bittersweet, almost cloying but with just enough bitterness to offset it in the very end. Body is full, mouth-feel syrupy, carbonation is just right. An awesome barleywine, one of the best i have had.

Really good! Pours with a large, creamy, off-white head with lots of lacing. Nice red body. Lots of floral hops in the aroma. Taste is big, malty, caramel. Mouth coating, very syrupy. Amazing! Re-rate: 11% for well under $5 per bomber! I thought this was one of the best buys of the year last year, and one of the most underated beers of 2008...let’s see how the new 2009 compares: Nice tan head on a ruby body. Good lace. Toffee and orange zest, yeast aroma. Taste is caramalized pineapple with burnt maple. Syurpy mouth...I would give this years batch a 3.7 instead of last years 4.2.

Nice caramel aroma with some underlying pine hop notes, and pours a clear ruby color with a nice fluffy off-white head. Nice thick mouthfeel, much sweeter then the aroma leads to. Seems to fit more along the English barleywine style then the American. But a nice solid offering from this brewery.

22 oz. brown bomber bottle. 2007 Autumn batch. Poured out a brilliant copper color, with a huge tan colored head. Aromas are of cedar aged cigars, caramel, grainy malts, sweet, fragrant hops. Flavors are of burnt sugars, sweet hops, caramel, some tropical fruits, malts galore. Thick mouthfeel, rich and chewy. Sweet aftertaste. I’ve been waiting a few years to try this beer, and it did not disappoint.

Bottle Poured deep rich red brown with foamy beige head. Much lacing. Rich floral hoppy aroma. Full bodied flavour, caramel oakey and malty. Lasting finish with hoppy tang.

Bomber. Pours slightly hazy dark orange-amber with a moderate tan head. Aroma is sweet, fresh citrus, along with some caramel malt. Flavor is sticky malt, with a fairly complex mixture of flavors---caramel, citrus, light fruits, set off with a bit of resiny citrus hops, some earthy hops towards the finish, and a bit of peppery spice. Thick mouthfeel, and slight alcohol kick. A bit on the maltier side of the scale for American barleywines. This is quite well done, and interesting enough to stand out in a way that Lagunitas beers usually don’t.