Mendocino Talon Barley Wine

Brewed by Mendocino Brewing Company
Style: Barley Wine
Hopland, California USA

Pronounced molasses is cloying. Aging is apparent but more musty than woody. Dark fruit and pear notes are nice. Tobacco. Makes me feel like I am going to cough but I don’t. Sticky.

bomber thanks jason. slightly hazed reddish chestnut color pours with little head. sweet golden raisin aroma with a tinge of dry breadiness. sweet entry with a nice mouthfeel and an interesting spiced quality. very traditional style barleywine which i like. raisins caramel and a toasted kind of creme brule flavor come into play. this is good stuff

22 oz’er. Candy red and dark with a initially firm, then submitting head of tan foam. The aroma gives away the 10.5% ... cooked sugar, caramel, and dark fruit already flowering in the nose. The beer assaults the palate right away with a strong alcoholic essence of brown sugar, cooked pears, and candied apples. Right down the barleywine tunnel, this is good stuff. (#3045, 7/31/2007)

Mmm, very pleasing aroma, hints of raisin, plum and a bit of sherry and other light papery oxidation. The oxidation is enough to give this a hint of complexity and age without ruining it. I can’t find any markings on the bottle to specify its age. Rubyish orange color, pretty dark as b-wines go, medium tenacious head. Flavor begins with a big syrupy sweetness, quickly met with a tingly grassy hoppiness, leading into what amounts to a balanced finish, albeit a big one. There’s alot of IBUs in the finish, but also alot of heavy caramel sweetness. The flavor is not as fruity as the aroma, but the raisiny fig notes, along with some cardboard, linger after the finish, which is almost slightly hot from the alcohol. This is a pleasant one, a malt leaning barleywine with touches of fruit, really is how I prefer them to be made.

Pours a hazy dark maroon with a small light tan head. Smells of alot of dark fruit. Some apple and berry really stand out. Definitely malty as well. The taste is very syrupy sweet. Rich malts and fruits attack the tongue and palate. A little bit of caramel and a profound bitterness is apparent in the finish. Really very sweet, needs a little more balance I think. Not bad, but not great.

Bottle sampled. Pours amber/red with a small off-white head. Aroma of caramel, alcohol, fruit, and hops. The flavor is sweet, caramel, fruit, with a bvery noticeable alcohol bitter finish.

Very strong and sweet fruity aromas, close to pungent, but good. Pours like a barley wine; thick, viscous, and little head. Taste was sweet with a strong hop profile. Good beer.

bottle. mahogony pour with thin tan bubbled head. aroma is very hoppy, dark fruit, sugars and wet cardboard. a bit thin in the body. fresh hops, rich malts and sugar. pretty basic and easy drinking. not very impressive.