Lagunitas Olde Gnarly Wine

Tap @ Toronado Barleywine Festival in San Francisco. 2004 Vintage. Pours a cloudy reddish orange color. Prunes, ripe fruit, citrusy hops, with a smooth roasty finish. One of my favorites at the festival.

Thanks to TheBeerCellar2 for this beer. Poured a hazy dark amber with a fizzy off-white head which dissipated completely. Aroma of grapes, citrusy hops and biscuit dough. Flavor is a great balance of sweet vinous fruits, peppery alcohol and grapefruit hops. The three are completely balanced throughout the entire sip, even long into the finish. I can’t decide if the flavor is peppery, hoppy, or sweet, and I’m loving it. Mouthful is full and bubbly.

On tap @ Falling Rock 2003 vintage poured a hazy copper with a lasting amber head. Aromas of dried fruit, carmel, toffee, some vinous notes, and a hint of cocoa. Palate was medium bodied and warming. Flavors of plum, raisin, vinous, pepper, brown sugar and a hint of wood with a dry bittersweet finish.

This is the perfect time for a fine sipping brew, one that will help take the chill out of bones getting cold. Barleywine is the perfect beer style to do the trick. Barleywines are rich, complex, strong, warming ales that have an alcohol content approaching the strength of wine. Most weigh in at anywhere between 9-11% abv, but can go higher. These beers are meant to be sipped and savored, like a fine brandy, port, or single malt scotch. Barleywine is often served in a snifter in small servings, and make the perfect after dinner drink, or night cap. Most barleywines are very malt accented beers, to the point where some have to be aged a few years, or they can be a bit too cloying. Some West Coast brewers have put a truly American spin on this beer style, they brew barleywines that are not only very malty, but very hoppy as well. I have a lot of experience with this style, barleywine is one of my all time favorites, and I have tried literally dozens of examples from a variety of breweries. Sierra Nevada’s Bigfoot Barleywine is the classic example of "West Coast" big, citric hoppy barleywine, they were the first to add a big smack of hop character in a beer that is traditionally dominated by malt. Other West Coast brewers have followed suit, Stone Brewing Company’s Old Guardian, and Snoquilme Falls Old Rattle Snake come to mind. The Lagunitas Brewing Company of Petaluma, CA is following that West Coast tradition. Their Old Gnarleywine is a wonderful, big, strong, malty barleywine, but like the other examples I have mentioned, has a really great hop character as well. Old Gnarleywine pours to an opaque deep amber/ruby color, with a slight tan head, and a very soft carbonation. The nose on this beer is fantastic, it is just jam packed with malt and hop aromas. Big whiffs of sweet malt, butter scotch, and toffee, marry with piney, citric hop aromatics. Peppery hints of alcohol can also be detected. The palate is quite malty. Rich, complex, sweet malt flavors of fresh bread, butter scotch, toffee, and some estery fruit coat the tongue. The body is huge on this beer, very viscous and syrupy. This beer finishes with more of that sweet malt character up front, then dries out to a nice hop bitter bite and a warming, high octane, burn. Really a wonderful barleywine, it has both great malt character, and some great hop character as well. This is not as hoppy as Bigfoot, but like Bigfoot, the hop character is most vibrant when this beer is young. Barleywine can be laid down for years, but the hop character really starts to fade after about two years or so. I like to drink barelywines such as this and Bigfoot young, and enjoy that big smack of hops, but also age a few bottles as well. I wouldn’t pair this beer with food, this is a sipping beer that can stand alone.

Orange amber ale with light moka head. Sweet malt aroma with rich pinhey hops, and citrus. Good hops and malts with nice grapefruit in mouth, vanilla notes, some fruity esters. Very nice. May 2005, Capflu’s BW tasting.

This beer pours a brownish copper color, completely cloudy with a very thin pearlish white head that left a ring of lacing around the edges of the glass. Aroma is very sweet and sticky with hints of caramel, brown sugar, alcohol, wood and vanilla dominating. The flavor is full-bodied and tongue enveloping. Overwhelming caramel sweetness with hints of vanilla and chocolate. Absolutely wonderful warming alcohols but not burning in any way. Silky vanilla texture with hints of slight bitter hops toward the finish leading into more super sticky caramel. Fairly wet once again sticky finish. Molasses? Perhaps some bubble gum and raspberry in there as well as undernotes in the finish. Honestly an exceptional beer..mild carbonation, should do excellent with aging.

A big thanks to kramer17801 for this bottle. poured a a nice brown with a off white head that left some lacing. aroma, caramel, alcohol ( one of the things I like about barely wines), malts, med dark fruits. flavor the nic balance of malts and fruits was nice. the alcohol was burn was nice. would like to get some more of this.

Hoppy with grapefruit and pine with lots of caramel malt. Brown with a thin head that fades. Warming, toasted caramel with a very hoppy finish. Medium body, oily texture that is nice to drink. Thanks to StewardofGondor for sharing.