Lakefront Beer Line Barley Wine

Formerly brewed at Lakefront Brewery
Style: Barley Wine
Milwaukee, Wisconsin USA

Ruddy amber color, no head. Bottle conditioned, heavily sedimented. Aroma is sharp, sour, sherry-like. Lots of alcohol. Flavors are acidic, sour, somewhat fruity, notes of sherry and brandy. Very sweet. Sticky full body. Sharp sourness actually has some appeal, but in the end this just doesn’t come together well.

millennium 2000 special edition: faint alcohol fruit brown sugar aroma. no head. some floaties. looks like liquid golden poop. mmm, the taste makes up for it, but it's subpar. creamy mouthful leaves ya with a warming burn. i don't care for the aftertaste much. leaves quickly though. so it's not bad. small bottle. good, but next time i'll pass.

Ok, there is stuff floating in this beer. I know this is normal, but it's still slightly disturbing. Not a bad beer, I somewhat enjoyed it.

2000 bottling: Cloudy orange color with lots and lots of yeast chunks. Sweet, slight acidic, not too much alcohol taste considering the alcohol content. A so-so beer.

2000 Bottle: Hmm. Usually I don't like when beers are bottled in servings smaller than 12oz, especially at $2 for 6.3oz. Thoroughly dark orange with an almost nonexistent off-white head. Aroma of caramel, malt and alcohol. Rich body with a flavor that is very intense and is almost too much to take in. In that regard I was happy for the smaller serving size. The flavor is very in-your-face fruit (apricot and apple), alcohol and caramel. This would be better if it had some time to calm down I think.

Completely unnoteworthy. Not bad, not good. Just bland. It's almost a feat just to have gotten such little flavor out of a barleywine. Some alcohol, touch of caramel, not much else. Dull

Jaymobrown & I lined up a bottle from each year (99,00,01,02) and they were all vastly different in color, nose, and degrees of terribleness. 99 was dark reddish brown, lifeless, yeasty with hints of cherrywood and too-strong apple brandy. 00 was pale yellow with small patches of substance (yeast?) on top. Sugary and overpowering alcohol denied any enjoyment, like drinking cough syrup circa'77. The 01 was maple colored, phenolic, and over-the-top sugary with a strange terrible aftertaste. The 02 was almost a Barleywine by definition, but still had a nasty sugary, rotten taste. Orange zest seemed to be the aftertaste hidden behind the rotten cherry alcohol taste. Worst Beers I have ever had..bar none, from an otherwise wonderful brewery. These are 'organic', if anyone really gives a damn about something so absurd.

I was lucky enough (I guess) to have tried the 1999, 2000, 2001, and 2002 all next to each other. Great variances in appearance among all of the "vintages." 1999: Yeasty smell and dark brown. Heavy alcohol nose. Cherry blossoms. CokeCola with some type of alcohol. Flat. 2000: Orange sugar candy like. Lighter apricot color. Tastes like burning. 2001: Nose is a blend of rubbing alcohol and adhesive strips. Caramel sweetness and an awful aftertaste. 2002: Realy light nose, some orange. More citric tastes than the others.