Lagunitas Olde Gnarly Wine

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

Nice red-brown pour with a moderate biscuit colored head. Big fruit aroma, very raisin and plum heavy with some caramel and brown sugar as well. Excellent mixture of citrus and especially caramelly malt with some nice spicy essence as well. Excellent barleywine.

Pours a brownish-amber color with a medium tan head. Aroma is of caramel, dark fruits, chocolate and a hint of some hops. Flavor starts off sweet and gives way to the molasses, caramel, and chocolate. It finishes with a little of a hop kick. I’m rather impressed with this barley wine. Very good.

Mahogney color with a dense off-white head. Rich malty aroma with some caramel and melon notes. Surprisingly mellow. Mild caramel sweetness, some toast, plum. Good dose of citric hops in the finish. Satisfying Barley Wine, I’d like to try an aged sample.

Pours a medium dark brown, small white head. Aroma is sweet, caramel, and english. Flavor is more caramel, some sweet fruits as well.

22oz bottle: Sparkling copper pour with a condensed beige head. Fantastic nose of caramelized sugars, butterscotch, rum, raisins, plums, caramel covered green apples, candy corn. Did I mention that this smells sweet? Hops are secondary, but present with a fresh grass/pine needle influence. Big, almost cloying, body. Wow - more aged malts, nearing oxidation, but velvet smooth. Slight bitterness keeps the sweetness in check and rounds out the sugar onslaught. Very nice - I was expecting an American barleywine from Lagunitas, but this English style is fantastic. I would like to see this with about a year on it.

Bomber. Pours clear, but dark copper, almost brown. No real head to speak of, mostly a ring of off-white bubbles. Strong barley malt, alcohol, maple, hops, and cherry candy. Big, bold taste. Lots more hops than expected, balanced with a sweeter caramel malt. They typical Lagunitas sugar is there, but far less than usual. Sticky finish. Loved it.

amber body with large head..aroma of grapefruit hops, citrus notes, caramel and figs...flavor has subtle grapefruit notes that don’t seem to dominate like they do in the nose..biscuit, caramel, and lightly soapy...thick, syrupy swallow makes this one hard to drink in some ways..

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.