Lagunitas Olde Gnarly Wine

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

hapjydeuce brought this to the PP bottle shop. I can’t believe I haven’t tried/rated this yet. Thanks Justin! Deep amber color. Lots of carmelization/melanoidins. Sweet. Bitterness is mild. It’s a bit young fresh and needs some aging to take the bite off.

2007 bottle courtesy of markwise. Pours a generally clear amber brown color with a thin white head. Aroma is sweet and floral with notes of caramel, malt, honey, some ripe dark fruits like raisins and plums. Flavor is also sweet and malty with notes of brown sugar, caramel, honey, some faint floral hops and light spice. Generally medium body with a slightly boozy finish. This beer has aged well.

BW # 5 Bomber poured into 3 brandy glasses. Poured with minimal head. Color is a copperish-brown. Aroma is very strong and very malty (really i expected this from Alesmith). Some fruitiness as well. Taste is butterscotch-alcohol malty. A tiny bit thinner than I like. Alcohol pretty present. A good bitter ending in the taste.

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.

Alcohol kept the head down, and that alcohol is very apperant- almost "hot" in it's pallate. Lots of malt that still manages to be over run by hops. Lots going on in this beer and it still manages to be pedestrian.

Starts off abit malty, sweet, with fruits, then as I got through it hops became more present. The alcohol really hit me quick, this one should be taken slow.Great brew! On tap at Hollingshead’s, Orange, Ca.

Dark amber with thin white head. Aroma of citrus, caramel, caramelized sugar and trademark Lagunitas alcohol. Taste of brown sugar, caramel and citrus hops. Starts sweet then finishes dry. Like most Lagunitas they don’t bother to mask the alcohol making it less drinkable, IMO.

2008 bomber. rich coppery amber pour with a fluffy light khaki head. initial floral citrus aroma is followed by pine, orange and some other fruit (pineapple or over ripe mango maybe?) and sweet caramel cereal type grain. the palate is surprisingly not overly sweet. of course the caramel and malt are up front but they are combined with pine, grassy, citrus and earthy hops to keep everything in balance. some of that over ripe fruit shows back up along with orange and some spices. there’s a piney/alcohol/spicy burn on the finish. medium bodied for the style. a bitter dryness cuts through the sugar to keep it drinkable. very basic and delicious.