Lagunitas Olde Gnarly Wine

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

A Mes rate: bottle at The Cadster’s Spotify tasting.
Sim bought this back from the States last time she went. In all honesty I thought it would be good but I wasn’t expecting it to be great. How wrong I was, this is a belter. A dark hazy amber body with a really good beige head. Gorgeous malt and caramel plus some excellent fruity notes. Not overly hoppy like a lot of US barley wines but there is still a glorious bitter kick in the finish. Plenty of alcohol but it’s perfectly tolerable. Nothing outlandish just a really good enjoyable drink.

Bottle @ thewolfs pre-festival tasting, Kolding.
[thank you, dedollewaitor]
Pours deep red-brown with a small, creamy, off-white film head. Aroma has caramel and a good dose of fruity American hops. Fine oily mouthfeel. Good balance of malts, alcohol and hops. Lots of sharpish citric and softer fruity hops, good base of sweet caramel. Nice BW.

2004 Vintage. Bottle shared courtesy of egajdzis. Poured a see through reddish color with a smaller sized off white head. Aromas and tastes of caramel, brown sugar, and fruits. Light citrus in the background Medium sweet. Very easy to drink.

Tap at blind tiger. Orange body, gentle prickly off-white foam. Lots of C-hops in the aroma, but very malty and sweet, too much so in fact. Old ale reminiscent palate, chewy and very mildly carbonated. Maple reminiscent malt. Long c-hops aftertaste, but almost no bitterness. I can’t say I’m a fan. Like any lagunitas I’ve had, it’s very flavorful, but heading nowhere. Their malt profiles just appear simplistic and mouth-filling for nothing, but I’m being difficult here.

(Bottle) Pours a dark copper color with amber highlights and a thick yellowish-beige head. Nice hoppy and caramel flavor makes this brew a treat.

2003: Pours a dark copper with a big thick lacing light tan head. Plenty of western hops exploding out of the bottle mesh well with the sweet caramel malt in the aroma. Starts real nice and sweet with good floral hoppy attributes and caramel malt complexity, but becomes more bitter and unbalanced toward the finish. Still hides the alcohol very well. This has all the makings of a great barleywine, but they just don't blend together as well as they could.

Bottle 2004... Clear ruby ale with a small, fizzy, off-white head. Malty, sweet aroma of toffee and caramel, pineapple upside-down cake and tawny port. Malty, vineous flavor with sharp citrusy hops. Caramel, cotton candy and pink grapefruit. Full-bodied and chewy/syrupy with medium carbonation. Lengthy bitter-sweet finish. Excellent barleywine!

Amber-foxy; thick yellowish head, collapsing. Nose of preserved (confits) dessert fruit, sugared oranges, Mandarine Napoléon. Hop punch, about an inch below the beltline. Malty underbuild, roasted malt. Liqueurish flavour, aperitif wine. Dry and sweet at the same time. Hops keep going on. Quite good. But for a barley wine, I could do with some more spiciness and dark malts, something plumpudding-like…