Lagunitas Olde Gnarly Wine

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

Pours with a substantial, frothy head; nice, heavy citric, doughy, caramel and biscuit aroma; complex malty flavor, notes of toffee, cola, charcoal, and licorice, maybe a hint of smokey/pheonals; ample bitter grapefruit balance; silky and creamy mouthfeel, full bodied; this is an excellent barleywine.

Light caramle colored. Slight tan head. Honey aroma. Sweet malty flavor. Agreat beer. Great label with entertaining sayings, phrases and descriptions.

Fairly standard viscous amber. Aroma of raisin bread, dates and rich caramel. Subdued hop aromatics. Wholesome, slightly salty malt goodness jibes well with some slightly citrusly hop intonations. Like outerupt noted, this tastes like it has more age on it than it does (I mean that in a good way, not an oxidized sort of way). Enjoyable but not quite outstanding - a little more syrupy than I like my barleywines. Very nice warming finish though.

reddish brown with tan head. flavor of crystal and chocolate malt with some hop bitterness present. this beer is dominated by the maltiness, which likely would become a little more subtle and complex over time, right now it is a solid version, but could improve in time

Reviewed 4/9/2009 (Draft at Flying Saucer, Houston, TX): Pours a strong red color body. Small off-white body, diminishing. Raisin and fig, sickly sweet aroma. This is a barley wine. Sickly sweet taste. Alcohol, sticky sweetness. Strong grape taste. Some roasted notes but mostly sweet. Too much. This needs to age for a long while more, have the sweetness go down.

Bottle. Although it lacked any foam at all, it had such a gorgeous orange amber color I rated the apperance higher. Nice malty aroma, alcohol whiffs up as well. A nice syrupy sweet malty flavor with a decent balance of bitter, quite easy going down, though you know it has a kick.

Very rich and malty - just what you would expect from Lagunitas. Lots of fig and raisin complimented by a great hop presence in a role not noramally seen in a Barleywine. Not overly sweet, but there is a strong taste of caramel and toffee. I really enjoyed the hops in here, a curveball from a traditional barleywine but who cares! Hops never hurt anyone, keep tossing them into the vat. I like how the style is actually Barleywine on this one, not American Strong Ale, like most other Lagunitas drinks - buck the notion of traditional classification, great beer is just that - GREAT BEER.

Draught. Candy-sweet nose, cherry with light hop aroma. Perfectly clear red with a thin off-white head. Very full-bodied with lots of strawberry flavor. Slightly cloying, but not terribly so. Light alcohol in the finish.