Lagunitas Olde Gnarly Wine

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

Pours a clear copper with a smallish off-white head. Aroma is medium sweet, grapefruit, raisin, cherry and caramel. Flavor is caramel, raisin, plum, cherry and some grapefruit. Slight alcohol warming. Medium-full body, sticky texture. Less hoppy than most American barleywines which is more true to style.

tap-falling rock tap house-2004 version-pours a ruby red hue with a nice off-white head with amazing lacing! Candy apple aroma-piney hops, green apples. The flavors here are complex and almost too sweet. cinnamon, piney hops, and sweet malts. kinda lite on the body. unique, novel, but not a great contender in the BW family. kinda unbalanced, but not in a really bad way.

Orange copper decent sized off-white head. Very pleasent earthy, piney aroma. BIG hop flavor - citrusy, earthy, resiny, peppery, messy. all good. Very entertaining West Coast Barley Wine.

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.

I tend to like Lagunitas. Find them "unsophisticated" very often and keep going back to see what it is that makes me think that. Guess they are near the target, but not on the mark for being a superior product. And I guess I would add that I'm inferior for not being able to note exactly what it is that I'm saying. This beer is a move in the right direction for me. First sip was fine, but not spectacular. Just seemed to get progressively better so that by the end I was thoroughly enjoying it. Maybe it was the affect of the whole, but I've had plenty of high ABV brews that left me unimpressed. Barleywine traits all there: malty sweet and the American hop wallop to delight the tongue.

Bottle 2004... Clear ruby ale with a small, fizzy, off-white head. Malty, sweet aroma of toffee and caramel, pineapple upside-down cake and tawny port. Malty, vineous flavor with sharp citrusy hops. Caramel, cotton candy and pink grapefruit. Full-bodied and chewy/syrupy with medium carbonation. Lengthy bitter-sweet finish. Excellent barleywine!

2002 bottle. Very sweet apple and citrus aroma. The flavor was very sweet with hints of alcohol and of course hops bitterness. Very slick, oily feel. Pretty orange color with a thick white head. Extremely palatable Barley Wine!

Bottle (2004) pours a viscous translucent reddish hued dark amber, medium off-white foamy head, lovely lacing, with very light carbonation.   Sweet alcoholic nose with only a subtle hint of bready malts.   Very thick and viscous on first sip, with a sharp hop bite that quickly settles to a nice super sweet malty background.   This one I think will age very well.   Full bodied with a very viscous mouthfeel.   Slightly cloying, but I think over time that will mellow out to produce a fantastic Barley Wine.   Finishes sweet, with a bready maltiness that hangs on.   While the alcohol is noticable in the aroma and on the tongue, it isn’t sharp nor detracting.   I think I should pick up more of this to lay down for a while.   YUM!