Left Hand Widdershins

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

Tmoney99 showed us the Money at the cincy beer gathering! Beautiful head with a nose full of spices (6 years worth). It was a nice mixture of carmel and alcohol with a hint of apples, like being at a carnival!---with 10 strangers...

Bottle courtesy of the very generous TMoney99. Thanks. Pours a golden color with just a tint of ruby. There is no head to speak of, but a good collection of "floaties" suspended in the glass. Smell is of a hoppy barleywine. The hops are somewhat reserved due to the age of this one. Age has definitely not hurt this beer. I keep picking up an apple flavor in the middle of each sip, which is a pleasant surprise. Even with the aging, I could still taste and feel the alcohol presence. Quite strong still. Very good beer, and an even better barleywine.

Thanks to tmoney for sharing his 6 year old widdershins. This one pours a nice hazy golden color. This one had a nice spicey head to it. I had the damndest time trying to place the smell and taste on this one... then it hit me, toffee. The toffee flavor is huge on this one. I did notice a hint of what seemed like a bit of raisin in this one and it tasted hot, even with all that age. I liked this one still.

At the 2007 Big Beer, Belgians, & Barleywines Festival in Vail. This was the 2003 vintage. Pours a light gold with a thin white head. Flocculent chunks of alien debris fill the glass. Oakey and caramel aromas. Flavor a smooth orange and raisin and plum tinged thick syrupy sweetness with roasted caramel. Body could be a bit thicker, but the alcohol level is not too out of whack. real good, but not great. UPDATE 4/26/8: On tap at Crescent Moon. Golden amber and hazy, big yellow ochre head. The aroma has serious smokiness and this rauch is present in the flavor as well. Thinner than a bigfoot, nonetheless delicious.

Left Hand seems to suction out all of the interesting bits and pieces to whatever style they try their hand at. The Widdershins is no exception, amounting to another soulless beer that, while wholly drinkable, echoes with its resounding emptiness and barren character. Siphoning off all the flavor from a Barley Wine seems like it would be difficult, but apparently Left Hand has honed their craft enough (with the exception of the Milk Stout) to do it with a menacing efficiency. Never have they fouled up a beer completely. They leave it at the precipice of desire, with just enough oomph to give a beer drinker a reason to tilt it back, and not enough oomph to enjoy it. In this example, the head is a pale off white color, textured like a ragged, well used kitchen sponge. Small little whips and tails reach for the sky, looking like a nightmarish forest of snow laden evergreens. The bronze color of the Widdershins is decidedly clear, and gave me the impression of looking into an earth-toned aquarium. The aroma is watery, weak and diluted, making it both difficult and unrewarding to pick it apart. Something sticks out here that has so far been unfamiliar in my beer drinking career. It takes me a long time to figure it out, but at last I come to the conclusion that jalapeno is the defining feature of the aroma, backed up by copious hops. This is verified by the enormous ingredient list from Tabernash which reads like a Russian novel: Magnum, Centennial, Northern Brewer, Cascade, Tettnanger, East Kent Goldings, Fuggles. Call me ignorant, but that seems like a lot of hops. A ferrous twang clips the nose in an effort to distract from the jalapeno, but the hops combats it with gusto, causing much ruckus. Finally there’s a little wet tree bark in the smell, but it hardly gets a chance to make a peep while the abundant hops and metallic notes clash. The mouthfeel is full and bountiful, expanding and popping with a generous amount of carbonation. It’s this spring board of bubbles on which the dominantly hops flavor whisks about the mouth. Some sweet cream mellows the IBU’s a bit, as well as some medium strength caramel notes. A heavy dose of spice, like all spice in character, blazes a trail straight down the center of my tongue and down my gullet, leaving a line of acridity and buzzing flavor. The different flavor components seem disconnected, and leave me dissatisfied. Yet drinking it is a bit of a chore, and if it wasn’t for the severe buzz it induced (I blame being hungry at the time) I’d be much more bitter about it. At least I got to meet jalapeno aromatic in a beer for the first time, but beyond that the Left Hand Widdershins is another failed beer made with disheartening trepidation.

Thin head with very good carbonation. Loads of floaties though. Sweet caramel, toffee and a light fruityness. Hazy dark orange in color. Very lively in the mouth. A little bit thinner than expected. Lots of caramel, toffee, oranges. Quite yummy. Nice alcohol presence and warming. Smooth creamy warming finish with a little bit of hoppy bitterness showing up at the end. Quite good stuff.

I’m a fan of this. The aroma isn’t real strong, but the taste is nice and smooth. Not verystrong in the alcohol, but sweet and good. A little too expensive, but nice.

(Bottle, 2003) Pours clear amber. Dried fruits and hops in aroma with powder sugar and some allmond paste. Sugary malt with some toffee tones. Hints of boiled eggs, violet and pepper.Hoppy, sugary, caramel-ish flavour with a syrupy body. Small to medium bitterness. A bit salty and some crispbread. Pretty smooth mouthfeel with spicy hints.