Mad River John Barleycorn

Brewed by Mad River Brewery
Style: Barley Wine
Blue Lake, California USA

Reddish brown with a small tan head that soon becomes a ring. The nose is sweet caramel and faint hops. Alcohol jumps out in the flavor. Dark fruit and caramel as well. A pretty good beer but a less than exciting barley wine.

2008 12oz bottle. Dark brown with a red tint along the edges. Rich malty aroma, very nice. Taste is much the same, nice and full bodied as well, caramel and dark fruits. Very tasty.

2008 Bottle. Marked at 9.6 percent ABV. Pours with a fluffy, off-white head and a muddy chestnut brown body with orange highlights. Good retention with decent lacing and faint alcohol legs. Aroma of hops, caramel and strong alcohol with some light notes of bubblegum. Taste is bitter throughout with hops and a nutty bitter malt some alcohol and no real sweetness. Tastes like a very low final gravity for a barley wine. Not that interesting of a hop profile. The beer lacks character, although it might be good in a few years, it is not right now. Water like mouthfeel with moderate carbonation.

12 oz bottle from Bev4less. Pours a translucent chestnut brown with a small beige head that soon dissipates. The aroma is light with barley, plums and almonds. The flavor leans toward caramelized malted grains with biter walnuts and pecans. The mouthfeel is full and malty with lively carbonation. The finish is medium in duration with lingering caramel and biter-sweet nuts. Overall: I rather enjoyed this concoction, not as bad as some ratings would suggest.

Pours an amber color with minimal white head that quickly dissipates. Burnt citrus aroma and some chocolate hints. Flavor is very IPA like which is interesting for a barleywine. Would drink again.

GABF 2008.Clear amber gold, thin white cap. Bready caramel and burnt butter aroma. Sticky toffee malt palate, warming alcohol and an astringent hop bitterness make up the long finish. Solid.

2007 Bottle; Sampled October 2008
A vigorous pour into my 25cl tulip glass produces a tightly beaded, initially three-finger thick, light tan colored head. The beer is a clear amber color that shows a brilliantly clear, fully red tinged, copper color when held up to the light. The aroma is a heady mix of caramelized malt and sticky hop notes. At first notes of toffee, sticky crystal malts, brown sugar glazed grapefruit zest and tangerine are most noticeable, but soon an herbal hop notes starts to play a much more prominent role. Aromas of pine needles and a grassy herbal note become more noticeable as the beer warms. There is lots of biscuit like malt notes towards the end as well as the warm, slightly spicy alcohol character one would expect to find in a beer of this strength.

Thick and viscous feeling up front, this is balanced somewhat by a biting, herbal, green bitterness and hop astringency in the finish that really lingers on the tongue for quite some time. While there is a huge amount of malt here, the hop character is definitely the more dominant note right now. Hot alcohol flavors towards the finish seem to exacerbate the harsh hop notes. Lots of caramelized grain notes seem to mostly get drown out by the herbal hop notes and the vodka like alcohol character in the finish; at times some notes of toffee sneaks through as does some light berry notes and a touch of citrus.

This beer will definitely still age for quite some time. The hop character is still a bit rough right now and the hot alcohol notes could definitely use some mellowing out. I expected this to get better as it warmed up, but it actually got worse, more hot and more harshly hoppy. This really ended up being quite a big disappointment; it really needs at least another two years, if not five, before it might start to get drinkable.

Pretty tasty. A little more astringent than I like in a Barleywine. Nice hop profile. Lots of malt, with a touch of yeast. Candy sugar and caramel.