Beautiful super dark amber with garnet highlights. Aroma has a blend of fruitcake and gingerbread spices with candied citrus fruit peels. Flavor is rather treacly and cloying with a one dimensional hop bitterness on the finish. It’s like it can’t decide whether it wants to be a sweet, malty BW or a nice hoppy BW and it doesn’t do a good job at either. Aftertaste is rather unpleasant as well.

Pours small fine head, about a couple of milimeters tall, but it fades over a few minutes. Dark brown body. Seems fairly cloudy. No hops in aroma. Slight scent of malt, on the milk chocolate side. Flavor is quickly warming. Again with the slight milk chocolate side, laced with an alcohol chaser. Hop bitterness, while not present in the flavor, comes out on the pallate in the aftertaste. Honestly, I’m a bit on the disappointed side. I’d seen this on the shelf for years, but never bought it because there was something else that peeked my interests. I wish it had more sweetness to it.

Bottle, from Liquor Collection. Sits brown with a grey head in glass, though shines dark ruby in the light. Nice floral bouquet in the nose, with alcohol, caramel, and wood. Flavor is woody, with hoppy accents and a dry finish. This brew also features some alcohol heat and a slightly metallic finish. No one flavor dominates. What results is pleasant, balanced, and strong. I only wish that the overall flavors were bolder. Based on the aroma, this beer had more potential as a hoppy yet nutty barley wine blend.

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.