Lagunitas Olde Gnarly Wine

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

Pours clear deep bronze with a modest light tan head. The aroma has lots of dirty woody hops, a thick malt presence and a good deal of alcohol. Fairly thick body with very little carbonation. Starts with thick caramel malt that is quite cloying and has lots of alcohol presence. There is also a bold woody presence and brown sugar. The finish has a big emphasis on woody hops and alcohol. This is a fine barleywine, but I just don’t find this style as mind blowingly good as many out there.

On tap at the Mad Mex in Cranberry. Gnarly, my description exactly. Good example of a crude rude, high alky style. Aren’t all barley wines gnarly? I’m not good enough for this beer. Could not finish the glass. Syrupy terrible viscous liquid. Just like any other Lagunitas I’ve tasted, over the top.

Bottle: Poured a deep brown to amber with a thin beige head. Aroma is sweet with malts and caramel. Taste is full of malt and caramel, but has just enough hops and alcohol tingle to keep you interested from the top to bottom of your glass.

Fine lacing replaces a large head as the striking visual feature of this murky dark amber Barleywine. Brown sugar and dates play in the aroma that comes easily from the cold surface as this has just been poured. As it warms, a spicy element of nutmeg and cinnamon are added. Sweet yet not cloying and just the right hop bitterness at the very end. Very nicely done and well balanced.

Sampled on draft at Smokin Joe’s in Pittsburgh PA this beer poured a dark caramel-brown color with a trace of a khaki head. The aroma was bitter, sour, fruity and a bit harsh. The flavor was bitter fruity hops with sour malts and a caramelized pineapple element. The finish was long, sour, malty and fruity. There was a sour off flavor to this one that I found unpleasant.

2004 on tap at Ubers Tavern in Seattle--Poured a rich brown-amber body with a small whitish head. Nose of stinging piny, citrus, caramel and sugar. Slightly bubblegummy, but not too much. Leafy, somewhat cloying finish. Chewy, fruity, and citric. Great barley. Definitely gnarley.

2002 bottling. Bittersweet aroma, with very light toffee, orange peel, toasty malt, light berry, faint alcohol, something like sassafras(?!) and spicy hop. Clear, medium copper in color with a settling head and sparse lacing. Flavor is initially malty with some brown sugar sweetness, becoming a bit more fruity and spicy and then finishing with a nice addition of hops, spicy, resinous, very faintly citric and piney. Aftertaste is malty and sweet with abundant hop bitterness, faint orange and the warmth of alcohol. Very nice.

2002 edition: so anyway, I glued two glasses of these to my eyeballs and i walked around at night and i could see just fine..the aroma was creamy, malty like toffee and subtly spicy with hops..the mouthfeel was nice and creamy..bitterness comes through strong at the end..counteracting the nice creamy maltiness that greets the front of the tongue..malts are nice and toffeeish here, starting to get sticky but not too much, and the hoppy bitterness is nice too..nice nice nice, i tell yee