Lagunitas Olde Gnarly Wine

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

From a 22 oz. bomber bottle with an August 2006 bottling date, with a humorous blurb along the right side of label, sampled at a cooler cellar temperature in a snifter glass. Poured a reddish, orangey caramel brown, a little sediment, with a foamy, creamy off-white head that settled into a thin bubbly lacing. Aromas of caramel and milk chocolate, toffee, sugary, a light raisin and fig fruitiness, a soft pine and grapefruity hoppiness, and whiffs of spicy alcohol. Good moderate carbonation and a crisp, dryish, velvety smooth medium bodied mouthfeel. A nice west coast barley wine taste, caramel and milk chocolate maltiness, caramelized sugary, a light butter toffee, pine mixed with orange zest and grapefruit hoppiness, a soft lingering bitterness, a subtle plum and apple fruitiness, the alcohol is lightly solvent-like and warming in the palate, and a dry fruity, malty finish. Good sipping drinkability, another decent brew from Lagunitas, well worth trying.

Bottle shared with HogTownHarry, blankboy, jerc & mabel - courtesy of blankboy. Dark orange-amber with a small off-white head. Aroma of rich brown sugar, resiny hops, fruity malt - mmmmmm! Great flavour - caramel malt off the top, some notes of candied orange peel and cocoa, with a slowly building hop bitterness to finish. Mighty, mighty fine.

Bottle (650ml). Shared with blankboy, GregClow, jerc and mabel, blankboy’s bottle. Ahh - THIS is a barleywine. Poured clear mahogany, oily and refractive, with an average off-white creamy/rocky head. Soft, fresh sweet grain aroma - oats, rye and wheat - mildly resiny alcohol and some fruit sweetness. Tasted of caramelized malt with alcohol, orange peel, herbal hops and oh so yummy - not too boozy or sweet, nice balance. Silky mouthfeel, light bodied for a bw but nicely astringent and a surprisingly mellow balanced finish - very well done indeed.

Brown body, small khaki head. Sweetish aroma of gingerbread and rye, malt, muted dark sugar notes. Sweet malt flavour, more prominent dark sugars with light hop bitterness that accents the dry caramel notes nicely. The dryness keeps it from becoming cloying. Medium palate (3+). Quite nice! 7+/3/9/3+/17-18

22 oz bottle. Poured somewhere between amber and copper with a tan head that was gone quickly leaving nice lacing. Nose was fruity and somewhat piny. Really rich on the tongue, and it hides the alcohol well. Flavor of caramel and chocolate. Somewhat sweet but not objectionably so. Almost like drinking a liqueur. Wonderfully executed Barley Wine. Update: Recently drank a 2006 bottle (aged two years in my cellar) This seems to have gotten even better. Great stuff.

22 oz bomber. 2006 Vintage. Consumed at the Brickskeller in Washington DC on 11/25/06, 4th brew of the night. This is where the night started to go wrong I’m thinking, I should not have consumed a whole bomber after 4 potent brews, but thats enough to say on to the rating. Pours a deep straw with a small thin white head. The aroma was very light and sweet and fruity but barely noticeable. The smell was more lightly fruity, apples or pears certainly not as heavy as figs. The taste is light and sweet, not too strong it bleeds over my tongue and is reminscent of dried apples.

In the bomber bottle at The Brickskeller. 2006 vintage. Pours a clear dark amber with an abundant, but fleeting off-white head. The residual head after die-off is a thin but impermeable layer. The first aroma is of chocolate and alcohol. There’s an essence of wheat in there as well. Little to no lacing remains. The esophageal burn is extreme. This is just too green to drink in its first year of life. The flavor is medicinal. It is thick for sure, but not so thick that you have to chip it out of the glass. You get heartburn from this beer immediately. Aroma of apricots. I think this vintage will mellow nicely with time. The strong hop bitterness is totally lost inside this beer. It seems much stronger than the promised 9.7% ABV. This is a barleywine with a rough edge of still being a child. I’d say 1-2 years of mellowing will do it good. Dave is such a big shot that he should buy these up and store them for a couple of years before even allowing goobers like me to stroll in and order it off the Brick book. It has an outrageous bitter chocolate aroma and flavor. The taste is in fact not far from Gran Marnier. You need a cautious discipline when you drink this. An odd saltiness emerges at mid bottle, or am I just getting drunk? Seems quite bicarbonate in character. Now I’m getting lots of Tootsie Roll candy out of it. Rivlets of alcohol can be seen in the light through the beer. This begins to dehydrate you after awhile. Leaves you with chocolate chip cookie dough burps.

Had this awhile back outta bottle, Smelled decent but tastes better than it smells, this tasty beverage packs a punch and its taste is pleasing, a good solid beer.this really was the first "real" beer i had so..