Lagunitas Olde Gnarly Wine

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

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.

22oz bottle. Pours a clean clear amber/orange color with nice medium sized head. Aroma was sweet with caramel,light vanilla, and light hop notes dancing around. The body was thick and chewy which was perfect. The taste was just like the aroma with sweet malty light fruity flavor. Real easy to drink.

2006 bottle. Pours a translucent copper with barely any suggestion of a head, just like a barleywine should look like. The nose is spot on as well. Big rich malt, though not overly sweet. Like carmel, not cloying, balanced by a woody sort of hops, a little earthy. The palate is nice, low carbonation, not super thick, but not watery, with some alcohol in there, for sure. The flavors are really quite enjoyable. Sweet, but not to sweet, something very tannic about this, like tea. The malt is not hit you over the head in a thick syrup, rather, it’s more like a thin port. There’s some alcohol in here, and no sign of cough syrup is what I’m saying. Soem slightly woody and barely earthy notes accompany a very conservative noble hopping. A little peppery. A bit of bubblegum. The finish is light, and dry for the style, while the aftertaste is tannic, with some bitterness. This reminded me so much of the first barleywine I had, a year old Bigfoot, though I’d say it’s much less syrupy and hoppy. I have to try to pick up some more of this stuff in my travels this week.

Pours a dark maple color, a little thick with a sizable tan head. Smell is like strong barely malt, a little alcohol and hops. Taste is like a moderately sweet barely wine but with considerable bitterness. Mouth feel is slightly harsh. A warming, buring happens in the throat after the 4th sip. Finish is bitter-sweet malt and hops.

Pours dark ruby with a thick head. Alcohol nose. Hoppy but not too hoppy. A perfectly balanced ale with essence of dried fruits and caramel. A huge beer that is at the level of Old Horizontal.

Beautiful reddish color, minimally carbonated. First aroma is of ginger ale with a sweetness that is more apparent there than in taste. Mildly bitter finish. ($3.75/22oz)

Bottle from Canals. Hazy Dark pour like a cloudy amber. Fruit aromas are definetly noticeable with caramel malt and citrus hop. Pretty much the some notes are in the flavor but really blended good. I can’t say enough on how this brewery is really coming along finely.

22 oz bottle poured into a snifter has an orange amber color and a thin layer of tan froth leaving a ring of foam on the glass. aroma has caramel, brown sugar, sticky dark fruit, and hops. flavor is heavily malted, sticky brown sugar, hop bitters, and caramel. hits of dried fruit, sweet but countered by bitterness, and thick with malts. the mouth feel is fairly full and it finishes with dark fruit and a lingering bitter sweetness. alcohol is well hidden here.