Lagunitas Olde Gnarly Wine

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

2006 on tap at Brouwer’s Hard Liver ’09. Pours clear orange amber with minimal head. Powerful fruity hop aroma with some caramel malt. Well balanced. Nice thick mouthfeel and hop finish.

bottle shared with Pyrozoid and French tickler. Copper appearance with a medium creamy bulbblely taned head. Aroma: cheeze cake, creamy, banana, prunes, dry raisons, alcohol and dates. Flavor: prunes, hops, creamy, corn syrup, alcohol, pine and oak. Palate: medium to full body, soft cabonation, creamy, oily, with a ginger alcohol finish.

Wife said, "Pretty gnarly." Powerful and compelling -- not for the faint of heart. Extraordinarily flavorful, but savor it slowly.

22 oz. bomber. Pours a bright and clear garnet color with crimson highlights. Initial pour forms a thick and creamy beige head with fairly strong retention. No lacing observed. Nicely balanced aroma profile noted on first sniff between the malts and hops. There is a very fruity nose to this barleywine noted right upfront. However, as with a few of the other Lagunitas brews I’ve sampled ( Brown Shugga and Hairy Eyeball come to mind) there eems to be a faint, distracting, slightly off background smell of over-ripe fruits. A mild citrusy, spicy hop aroma nicely comes through to balance the sweet caramel candy, ripe fruit and chocolate malt-ball nose. Mouthfeel was quite big and chewy with a slightly oily texture. Taste profile was also very well balanced starting off with immediate sweet flavors of caramelized brown sugar, Grape Nuts cereal, red apple, toffee and some molasses. This quickly transcends into a firm grapefruit rind and herbal-like hop bitterness which nicely balances this big, rich BW out in the finish. Definitely a sipper as the 9.7% has a notable warmth. At $3.79/bomber this is an exceptional deal on a very tasty BW.

Pure West Coast barleywine, sporting huge portions of both chewy malt and almost savage hops.

1999 vintage sampled in early 2006. Deep orange amber. Nose bready, some sweet fruit. Sugary. Hops are quite muted by this point, good malt base, candyish sugars, some banana and berry. Has aged rather well.

2002: Radiant brass shade. Creamy, retentive ring of foam. Aroma of jellied candy, pineapple, cotton, plum, leaf, and phenols; vague caramel, spruce tips, and white grape undertones. Wonderful, seemingly bottle conditoned palate: velvety, softly sappy. Initial leafy, earthy bitterness followed by a subtle tanginess, pine sap, marmalade, maraschino cherry, fig, soft notes of caramel, and wood notes. Long, balanced finish of toffee glazed malts, peppery alcohol, numbing alpha acids, apple stem, soil, tobacco, and accompanying mellow pineapple hop belches. Bready, caramel malts and obscure piney notes emerge as it reaches room temp. Sadly, a very average aroma, but the flavor and palate are nearly flawless. A particularly impressive offering from this redundant brewery.

Dark amber color with a beige head. Aroma and flavor of dark fruits/berries, toffee and hops.