Lakefront Beer Line Barley Wine

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

I cut a deal with a lady at Lakefront to give me a bottle of this (available by request only at the brewery) for 2 brewery tour tokens. Poured a thick, cloudy orange. Contained sulfites. Small, off-white head with tiny bubbles popping off the top. Smelled of sour green grapes, wheat and barley. Tastes rich. Oak like characteristics and tart cherries. No trace of alcohol in the taste but it catches up on you about 10 minutes post consumption. I’m not a regular connoisseur of barley wine, but I’d say that this concoction is a quality offering by the lords at Lakefront.

Small 6.3 oz bottle, tenth anniversary 1987-1997...best if aged at least one year printed on the bottle, how about 8 years. Pours a cloudy orange copper with a very small head that leaves no lacing, smoky fruity aromas, sweet fruity, woody bourbon flavors. Full bodied with a smooth syrupy mouthfeel, not much carbonation, finishes sweet. Seems to have held up very well, not bad.

Pours a dark red/cranberry color. Lots of things floating around. Aroma is woody, along with sour/funkyness to it. Flavor is flat, thick and lots of sour and sweetness to it. Very strange.... not a fan.......

Poured a chunky orange beer with a load of sediment. Gross, even for a homebrew. Nice hoppy/malt aroma. Thin rind of a head. Flavor is loaded with hop character and bitterness. A little grapefruit with some other complex fruits. Long alcohol finish. Would have scored it higher if they’d been able to pare down the residual yeast.

Talk about the fog rolling in.This brew was heavily clouded.Poured a dark yellow color with scents of sour fruits like apples.The alcohol was hidden well and had nice clean finish.

Nip (6.3oz) bottle Millenium 2000 release, Sampled September 2004
Pours a hazy copper color with no head and no visual sign of carbonation. The aroma is thick of aged malt characteristics, I get notes of sherry, toasted malt, alcohol, caramel, and the aroma I associated with the crust of a well made, fresh artisinal crunchy crust bread. This one has a wonderful aroma, it has none of the over-oxidized notes, and keeps me intrigued enough that I spend a couple of minutes just smelling this beer before my first taste.

The taste is thick, a bit sweet, with what seems to be a citrusy-herbal hop component up front, which is a bit surprising given its age, so perhaps is just the aged malt complexity. The finish is lightly bitter, with a drying fresh bready-toasty character to it. There is definitely a twang in the middle of this beer a combination of rich malty notes and citrusy-herbal character that just enlivens this beer. It is of course quite flat, but this beer is strong and rich enough that this does not seem to be missing at all.

This beer has just aged so well and gracefully, I can’t even imagine what it tasted like to begin with.

Murky orange with no head. Sour flat malt aroma with light fruit. Sweet heavey mouth feel with bitter! finish. Flavors of maple and malt with a annoying cloyingly sweet quality. Maybe on pancakes but not in my mouth.

2002 Bottle Murky orange minimal white head. The aroma is sweet maple and alcohol. The Flavor is odd, it seems that all of the right components are there but it never comes togther and its just an overwhelming cloying sweetenss and alcohol. Medium highly alcoholic mouth-feel. Deseves it low ratings.