Mad River John Barleycorn

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

In my opinion this is highly underrated. This is one of my new favorite beers. Beautiful molasses aroma. A great strongly-hopped barleywine. Very strong caramel flavor, and extremely tasty.

12oz. bottle; 2006 vintage; 9.5%. dark amber, copper color. aroma is sweet malt. slight woodiness. flavor is very medicinal. very chocolaty. cereal finish. WOW!

Celebrating the Harvest 2007 (It says on label) Pours a deep copper color with a beautiful, deep ruby tint. Looks very nice, when held in front of a light source. About one-finger of loose foam forms on top, then leaves, just almost as quickly. Lacing is thin and light, but still present. This smells like a glass of delicious malty goodness, with a touch of a boozy hint. The maltiness smells like a brewery. You know, when you’re on a tour, and you come to the room where they add the malted grains, and they just added them an hour to two ago. You know that huge, powerful, delicious smell? This beer smells like that. There is also some layers of caramel and toffee, in there. Nice hints of dark fruits. This could be my favorite smelling barleywine, ever. Oh, god, that’s pretty damn tasty stuff. Such a plain looking bottle, hiding something this wonderful inside. Yumm! Just a nice, big-sized, malt-bomb. Not over-the-top, either. Thoroughly smooth. Light notes of dark fruits mingle with notes of caramel and toffee. Slight hints of vanilla. Very mild kiss of hops, right at the end. You almost miss it. All over it, lies a nice, smooth, butterey sweetness, with a hint of spice. Solid medium body. I wish it was a tad bit more full, and this one would be damn near perfect, for me. Nice, smooth and creamy. This is so highly drinkable, to me. I could drink this in place of water, for an extended time, I think. Granted, I might not get much done in that time period, but I’d be happy. And I’d enjoy every drop of it.

Poured with a great foamy, frothy tan head that yield some runny lace. Unfortunately, I ate some radishes before hand and my mouth is a little confused from that. I do taste some great hop that dominates and yet compliments the caramely malt. Distinct barley wine hop nose. Drank it in a goblet that’s narrow on bottom so beer is translucent there and wide on the top where the beer is almost opaque. Strange effect, good beer!

John Barleycorn 2001 vintage pours to a beautiful, deep caramel/ruby red color with a slight tan head that quickly fades and a soft carbonation. The nose on this beer grabs your attention as soon as you pop the cap. Very fragrant, zesty, spicy waves of Saaz hop aromas, marry with touches of citric/orange aromas, and an underpinning of sweet malt aroma. The palate is soft and fat on the tongue, with lots of big sweet and caramel malt flavors, fresh bread, and slight toffee and estery flavor. The body is big on this beer, but not too brawny as it softly glides over the tongue. This beer finishes malty up front, then ends with a very zesty, grassy, hop bite paired with a nice warming alcohol burn that lingers. This was a very unique and special barleywine. The 2001 vintage has a wonderful Saaz hop character in aroma and bitterness, coming in at a mighty 60 IBU’s. It also has a sold malt back bone, giving that big hop character some balance, and a nice wallop of alcohol strength(9% abv), makes it a warming, comforting brew. Five years of age on this beer has mellowed that intense hop character and more complex malt flavors and aromas have come out.

Thanks to Ross for this one. This one looks like a smacked ass, which is what a good barleywine should look like...muddy dark brown in color with 1-finger splotchy khaki head. The aroma is very fruity, oaky, peaty, woth some hops, caramel malt, and feety cheese hints. The flavor is richly caramel malty, very fruity, figgy, with a big oaky bourbon, cabernet, cognac, and citric finish. Nice complexity and balance.

This is a 2007 update and this has managed to get ever better. Poured a very rich mahogany that was sort of a cross between red and brown and raised a big fat tan head left wonderful lacing in the glass. Wonderful nose of barley malts, hops,and some woody odors. Very smooth mouthfeel. Nice hop finish. This was good before and somehow they have made this batch even better. Original rating 12/24/05 was 7-4-7-4-17- 3.9. 2005 bottle fresh from the brewery. Poured a red-brown with a nice long lasting tan head. Clean nose with a hint of smoke. Palate is great with bit of a sizzle. Alcohol is obvious and hops are just right. This is a very unique tasting brew and may not be for everyone. But I like it. Sort of like an IPA on steriods. The 2006 was good, but the 2007 is wonderful. Put four six packs in the cellar to age. May get even better.

2001 bottling. Intense aroma, plenty of fruitiness, some apple, citrus and cherry, baking spices, faint tea leaves, wafting alcohol and lightly spicy hops. Red-orange color, finely hazed, initially fine head that all but dissipated completely. Great balance of caramel, bready, fruity malt sweetness, spicy, lightly piney and herbal hop flavors, bitterness and warming alcohol. Low effervescence on the palate and syrupy, oily mouthfeel. This is just a very nice beer, and the two years' aging certainly could not have hurt.