Lagunitas Olde Gnarly Wine

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

Floral, orange-blossom, pine, grapefruit hops are strong in the nose. Clear, mahogany-brown with a light ring of tan head. Thick, sugary, malt flavour with resinous bitterness and strong fruity esters. Medium body with low carbonation. Straight-forward and enjoyable. Bottle enjoyed with CapFlu, Goldorak, Joey_Capps, Olivier_MTL, Lubiere and MartinT.

Bottle provided to me by André and served in a St Bernardus chalice:

Pour a slightly hazy coppery hue topped by an initial beautiful frothy off-white head and outstanding lace, sadly it did fade a bit. The aroma is pure barleywine with heavy caramelized malts, piney and spicy hops, candied fruits, earthy yeast esters, a hint of salt and wood. The taste starts with a nice dose of bitters and spice laying on top of a rich malty base. Good citric and fruity overtones balanced by a peppery and cardamom spice character. The finish displays a biting edge of resin and salt, earthy and chewy developing a strong lingering aftertaste. For the ABV, this is quite drinkable and only develops a moderate warming after half of the bottle. YUMMY for sure, you know it’s like totally gnarly! Get ya some, highly recommended.

Bottle. Fluffy long lasting yellow head. Beautiful clear dark brown body. Aroma of roasted barley malt with walnuts cocoa caramel and butter. Good. Nutty caramel sweet flavor disguising the alcohol very well. Berries notes on top of it as well. Soft, smooth, pleasant, good, whate more can I add. Close to perfection. Lovely bitter sweet and surprising. Low carbonatiion. Long aftertaste.

Vintage 1999: Poured mostly clear amber color. Aroma was sweet and sugary with peach, dried fruit, and aged malt. The flavor continued with the sweet old fruit and a moderate bitter finish. The body has started to thin after all this time.

2003 bomber, many thanks to whoever sent this! Poured a brilliant reddish-copper with a short cap of beige head.. looked quite nice! Smelled quite nice too.. picked up lots of darker fruits along with a dusting of banana, some molasses, and brown sugar.. sweet, slightly-boozy, and well-aged. Sweet again in the flavor department with a significant aged caramel presence that popped up.. lesser dark fruits, brown sugar, and maple round out the solid malt profile.. bitterness was very mild, and was more likely just prickly alcohol notes.. sweet, warm, rewarding finish. Sweet and warm on the palate.. lost almost all of its hop bite, but I was really feelin’ a sweet aged barley wine this evening. Great stuff!

Complex aroma, High bitterness and drying finish. Dark colour, much head. Alcohol was strong and hardly tamed by food.

Bottle (650ml). Shared with blankboy, GregClow, jerc and mabel, blankboy’s bottle. Ahh - THIS is a barleywine. Poured clear mahogany, oily and refractive, with an average off-white creamy/rocky head. Soft, fresh sweet grain aroma - oats, rye and wheat - mildly resiny alcohol and some fruit sweetness. Tasted of caramelized malt with alcohol, orange peel, herbal hops and oh so yummy - not too boozy or sweet, nice balance. Silky mouthfeel, light bodied for a bw but nicely astringent and a surprisingly mellow balanced finish - very well done indeed.

Bottle 650ml,
Appearance: clean amber look with medium large creamy head, light lacing.
Aroma: strong malty, alcoholic aroma. Hint of spice, black pepper and salt with fruity hints and citric hops.
Flavour/Palate:sweet malty base. Fruity, clean approachable for such big brew. Strong yet clean and fairly smooth. Light alcohol finish. Solid Barley.