Mad River John Barleycorn

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

12oz bottle via trade with Brock_Landers! - Thanks John! - Pours dark mahongony with a short offwhite head that fades back to a ring quickly! Aromas of grassy hops over big caramel malts and toffee. Flavor is alot of caramel, and toffee as well with a good amount of brown sugar as well. slight pine as well. Palate is well carbonated but almost sticky sweet. A good sipper. Alcohol is well covered.

12-oz. Thanks, Pitonka! Pours deep dark ebony brown with a thick, moussy tan head. Nice fragrant nose; floral and grassy with big whiffs of pine in there as well. Nice thick grainy body and tingly carb for the attack; it’s kinda fun drinking carbonated barleywine. Rich earthy wet leafy dark fruity and toasty bitter mid-palate, tying off in a nice nutty/toasty/resiny bitter finish with not much linger to it. This is definitely away from all the sweet sticky porty goo common to so many BWs and it makes quite a play of it--tasty stuff.

2006 Vintage at 9.5% ABV. Pours russet colored with some sediment abound. Head of tan arises too around a half inch then fades quickly into spotty clusters. Sweet toffee aromas with caramel in a close second. Citrusy hops with a great floral touch that makes the nose quite lively. Fig, raisin, dates, and prune with a pineapple, grapefruit twist that leads into a maple brown sugar ester. Nice hop bitterness on the mid palate and ending of this but it leaves an unpleasant film that hurts both the taste and mouthfeel. Would probably mellow out overtime and be no problem. Cherry, fig, dates, brown sugar, some citrus although not as showing as the nose, hazlenut, and chewy caramel. Mouth is big, full and overtaking but like mentioned earlier some time to rest is needed. A good barleywine I’d like to lay down for a few years and try again.

Appearance: Pours a clear, bright carnet body with a small, off-white head. Smell: Whiskey-scented aroma with hints of sweet caramel, vanilla, spiced plums. Some perfumy peach notes. Taste: Sweet and syrupy, yet also earthy and grainy, with flavors of caramel, stewed plums, and brown sugar. The sweetness is backed by plenty of hop bitterness and, again, hints of peaches which meld with the alcohol is provide a shot of peach schnapps. Ends with a dryish, woody finish. Mouthfeel: Medium-full body. Dense, sticky mouthfeel. Relatively low carbonation. Quite warming, alcoholwise. Drinkability: Paired very well with the movie "The Lost Weekend".

2006 bottle. Pours an ever so slightly hazed reddish bown with a thin offwhite to grey head. The nose is sweet round and full. Big caramel sweetness, a little vanilla, alcohol, and some citrusy floral hops. A bit of pine hops cuts the malt in a lovely way. A creamy full mouthfeel. Low enough carbonation for the style, but high enough to give some life to an already relatively thick brew. The flavor is a cut below the aroma. There’s more roast and toast than there should be in this beer. A little bit of leather saves this beer giving it some interesting character. A bit earthy, a bit tannic to woody. A bit creamy, some diacetyl, a long dry allcoholic finish. This isn’t a bad beer though by any stretch of the imagination.

Very dark pour with a creamy head, Flavor is abit subdued for a barley wine, but I get little alcohol burn for 9%, Caramel, dark fruit, Slight roasted flavor, some bitterness, I liked this one, very easy drinker for a Barley wine.

Pours a murky brown with a quickly evaporating white head. Mild aromas. Some roast, oak, and caramel with dark malts. The taste was outrageously bitter. I was taken aback by it a little. Really lacking in the flavor category. Some roast and definitely malty, but it was kind of offensive actually. Not my cup of tea at all. Aftertaste was a horrible bitter mess. No good.

Dark brownish ruby, clear body. Fungal hops and bitter malt aroma. Citrusy fruit loops with some malt. Kind of basic flavor of bittered malt along with some woody fruit and well water. Alcohol is there too, which combined with the mild flavor is meh.