Lagunitas Olde Gnarly Wine

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

Pours clear reddish amber with medium white head, mostly diminishing. Aroma is strong Cascade hops. Flavor is same with some sweet malt too. Long bitter finish. Delicious! Not as complex as say an Arrogant Bastard but very good for hop lovers. Alcohol is not apparent in flavor.

These big, hot, sherry-like beers are an acquired taste for sure. Luckily, thanks in part to a few great offerings from Lagunitas, I have acquired the taste. This one is definitely big, you can taste the alcohol, but the sherry-like notes are predominant in the malt profile. Draught at Circa in High Bridge, NJ 9/1/07. A snifter full of this hot, heady brew after given time to uncool down to 55 or 52 degrees will either put you in a haze or break you out of one.

Pours deep ruby/coppery with minimal head. Complex aroma of fruit, berries, figs, toffee, alcohol, and cabernet. Tastes full-bodied, with tons of fruit and a slightly astringent finish as it warms. The alcohol appears, but it never impedes the fruit, malt, or hops. Good complexity. I don’t see this as an elite barleywine, but it is one of the better ones.

Pour: Amber, a little hazy, visible yeast. Small dense white head. Strong hops aroma, caramel and brown sugar. Dense, lively palate. Strong hops. Brown sugar and hops, mostly, alcohol is very well hidden.

Pours out a deep brown color with a small head. Aroma is hoppy, sweet and a slight amount of citrus. flavor was very nice with a hop smack to it. This is a great barley wine. one of the better ones that i have had.

Release 2002: A beclouded burnished copper color on the pour, the head mastodonic in size, spumescent in texture, a winsome tan in color, the residual lace a thick and glutinous sheet to meld with the glass. Hints of pineapple, bubble gum, sweet malt, fresh and appetizing is this nose, start ambrosial, thick malt, the top middling in its feel to the palate. Finish is spitefully acidic, the hops biting in their spiciness, the aftertaste alcohol bitter, long lasting and a nice “Belly Warmer”, and a fine beer from a fine brewery.

2002 bottling. Bittersweet aroma, with very light toffee, orange peel, toasty malt, light berry, faint alcohol, something like sassafras(?!) and spicy hop. Clear, medium copper in color with a settling head and sparse lacing. Flavor is initially malty with some brown sugar sweetness, becoming a bit more fruity and spicy and then finishing with a nice addition of hops, spicy, resinous, very faintly citric and piney. Aftertaste is malty and sweet with abundant hop bitterness, faint orange and the warmth of alcohol. Very nice.

Dark amber ruby, slight haze. Dissapating, slightly persisting head and lace. Big nose of caramel, fat malts, overripe fruit, candy. Full body, creamy, rich, sweet, caramelly malts, fruit/candy notes, hops try to interrupt to balance and do a bit in the end but this is a big multilayered malt feast. Drinks very well, they nailed the carbonation, making the palette perfect for me, gives it vibrancy, addictivness. Good BW. Memorable.