Left Hand Oak Aged Widdershins

Brewed by Left Hand Brewing Co.
Style: Barley Wine
Longmont, Colorado USA

Pours a nice burnt orange to red with an ever lasting off-white creamy head. Looks pretty nice! Aroma is dominated by hops, but is pretty gentle. Notes of orange, pine, grapefruit, oak, cinnemon and sugar. Flavor is pretty mellow, and surprisingly light on the malts. There’s a sort of roasted nutty flavor along with flowery citrus hops that dominate the malts a bit. There’s some char and wood there and the finish is well balanced and has lots of nice nutty earthy citrus and bitter flavors. But there’s just not much malt flavor there! THere’s maybe a bit of brown sugar and honey sort of flavors, but compared to other barleywines it should be a bit sweeter. I like the creamy mouthfeel and there’s no heat at all. Great drinkability. Still, I need more malt sweetness damnit!

Bottle 2004 from Party Source. Moderate hoppy, citrus and small woody aroma. Poured reddish amber with small white head that mostly lasted with good lacing. Complex blend of flavors that was more malty then other barleywines I have tasted. Finsh was long with a very small alcohol burn. Good not great

On tap at Draught House in Austin, served in a short snifter. Nice head for a barley wine. I don’t remember much from this one because a few beers followed it (including the Lagunitas Olde Gnarly Wine), but I do remember its slight hoppiness, entertaining citrus-ness, and slight warmth... hard to describe, let alone remember (I left my notebook in the car). Eh... it was good, but I’ve had better.

75 cl corked bottle (9.1 %)
Hazy amber colour. Big, foamy head. Fruity hop aroma with chalky notes. Flavour is hops and orange peel. Long bitterness. Alcohol is well hidden.

Amber colored with a pretty good head. Fruity in the aroma and the taste. Smoke and oak in there as well. Also some stone fruits. Some hops as well.

2007 vintage. Thanks John. The beer pours to a muddy pine colored body with a white head. The aroma is oaken oranges and barley water with some citrus. The flavor is a strong grassy and oaky pale malt combination. A mess of a beer IMO. The palate is sweet and sticky.

Cloudy amber, cream-like white head. Lemon, toffee, and oak aroma. Dry bitter hop presence in the flavor, citrus, lemony, woodsy, pine, caramel as well. Creamy body.

Split with maniac. Medium, faintly hazy orange amber, large initial head slowly fades to a lasting sheen. Aroma is earthy and citric hops, faint oak. Flavor is actually smoky, probably a side-effect of the oak, faint citric hops, caramel and toffee accented malts. Lingering smoky bitterness on the finish. A bit odd somehow. Smoke intensifies as it warms, as well as the emergence of some astringency. The warmer it gets, the more persistent and out of balance the oak gets. In the end, the oak is absolutely overwhelming, detracting as opposed to adding. I may have overrated this.