Lagunitas Olde Gnarly Wine

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

maroonish amber pour with a lasting beige head. Looks nice. Smell is kind of a dull non-descript cardboardy sweetness. Taste is fairly sweet up front, but balanced beyond that with moderate hopping and some alcohol presence as well that I don’t particularly care for. Has some syrupy, yet balanced alcohol and pine flavor, but not abundantly flavorful...The malt is kind of cardboard like and dull. Slick, thick syrupy mouthfeel but with a soft prickly bite. If only the smell and flavor were as nice. Found it to be a bit above average, but not spectacular.

22 oz. bottle courtesy of Bockyhorsey - Pours a clear deep amber color with a good one finger thick light tan head which settles to a lasting film. Very light spotty lacing. Aroma is toasted malt, esters, and floral hops. Flavor is cookie dough sweet malt. Has a nice hop presences to nicely balance the flavor. Medium to full body. Slight alcohol warming on the stomach. A very nice BW. Thanks Bill.

Fruitiness dominates the aroma, followed by spicy hops, and finally a good malt backbone. Hazy amber color, acceptable head for a barley wine. As with the aroma, the flavor presents itself in layers - sweet at first, followed by moderate fruitiness, spicy citrusy hops, and then it finishes dry and bitter. This is a potent beer - a tongue scorcher, being both intensely sweet and bitter at the same time. 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

Pours a light ruby color. Aroma is strong and fruity with some maltiness. Nice and smooth. Sweet fruity flavor with malts and hops and a little bit of alcohol to give it some punch. Lots of flavor. Very good.

deep copperish color w/ an off white head and some lacing. Smells of big carmel malt hints of vanilla a full grass hop and smells a bit hot. Full palate lightly oily smooth silky finish. Flavor is pretty sweet full carmel malt a good balanced hop bitterness and alcohol warmth in the finish the hop is fairly grassy hints of citrus as well. Very well done and very good.

tap-falling rock tap house-2004 version-pours a ruby red hue with a nice off-white head with amazing lacing! Candy apple aroma-piney hops, green apples. The flavors here are complex and almost too sweet. cinnamon, piney hops, and sweet malts. kinda lite on the body. unique, novel, but not a great contender in the BW family. kinda unbalanced, but not in a really bad way.

Lustrous red orange color with a thick caramel head. Lovely hop aroma with a delightful, subtle malt interplay. This is not a barley wine--how could it possibly be? This, if not an IPA, is an American Strong Ale--and a paridigm for the style. Awesome profusion of hops imparted with a fruity peach flavor. The alcohol is excellently masked. I will be taking this one with me to Golden Gardens grill outs this summer. Superb.