Marzonis Anniversary Ale

Brewed by Marzonis Brick Oven & Brewing Co.
Style: Barley Wine
Duncansville, Pennsylvania USA

Darkish clear red-orange, bubbly off-white. Nice fresh hoppy BW aroma. Piney bubblegum. Some alcohol. Foot-like yeast. Initial flavor is "thin". Thin mouthfeel is further depreciated by alcohol. I don’t know. A bit rough with piney alcohol.

Bottle via Bill. 2004 vintage bomber. The beer pours to a dark rusty bronzed body with a rich largely bubbled dark yellow-tan head. The aroma is sweet strawberries and pine bubble gum atop some aged barley. The flavor is sweet and malty with aged malts and hops. But, I still liked it. The palate is creamy, malty, lightly bitter, and moderately full bodied. I must be having an off day as I’m not getting the alcohol like others were. Yes, it’s warming, but no apparent fusel alcohols.

2004 vintage, thanks to Blake for sharing. Brownish orangish color w/ a full tan head and some nice lacing. Aroma is definatelly piney some light carmels a definate hot hoppiness still very hoppy for a nearly 2 year old bbear. There is some defiante alcohols though and touches of other sweet dark fruits. Full palate, well coated. Flavor is very sweet lots of carmels touches of raisen a hint of plum almost brown sugar.. a touch of pine, but not a ton of hops in the flavor.. definate alcohols. Pretty decent.

Oh my goodness. This is a tremendous barley wine. One of the best I’ve had in a long time. Has a really good, sharp, proper bitterness, with soft, sweet plums and red cherries, pears, a lot of sugar... then a burst of bitterness and sourness over the back. Hoppy and bitter without being grassy or leafy at all. Amazing lingering flavor of dry cedar wood and punchy, lacto-like sourness. I was told they used to sell this by the growler for $20, but at the pub you can get a pint for $3.50 while the keg lasts.

Draught at State College 8th Annual Festival. Nice caramel malty aroma, alcoholic vapors. Plum and brown sugar, molasses. Sweet and rich with nostril stroking aroma. Deep maple syrup brown clear with a thin light tan lacing head. Medium-heavy body, not quite oily, with medium carbonation. Sticks to you. Starts sweet with plum and chocolate, caramel and toffee, red wine. Nice bitterness of hops in the finish. A sweet after, just short of cloying and mild alcoholic warming. A nice barleywine that I got to try a bit raw last fall, but missed on tap last winter. Glad I waited to taste some aging effects. Draught again at Marzoni’s. Now a full year old - smoothed out a bit more. Nice deep malty notes with a good bit of resinous bitter. Warming alcohol and rich malt character. Yummy.
Update on 12/29/06 - now two years old and even better than I remember. Sweetness has toned down a little, and it’s a bit mellower than I recall. Nice fruity character.

I had this beer as a barleywine at the Penn Brewery Festival on June 4. It was about a year old at that time. This is everything a Barleywine should be. I found no fault whatsoever with it. I can imagine how great it would be in a few more years! They need to bottle this stuff.

Draught @ the brewery: Served in a 10oz. goblet. This one pours a cloudy copper color.There was some off-white head which left just a bit of lacing on the glass. Suprisingly mild aroma. There was some malt sweetness and alcohol. There was more to the taste. Sweett, with some alcohol. There were some dark fruits hiding down in there also. It could have been aged a bit more, but it was still very good.