Mikkeller Big Worse Barley Wine

Mikkeller
Brewed at De Proefbrouwerij
Style: Barley Wine
Copenhagen V, Denmark

prunish and earthy aroma. Pours a cloudy ruby-red with thin head. Sweet with burnt fruit, toffee.

12.7 oz bottle. Pours dark amber with no head to speak of. Aroma is quite sweet, with bready malt, caramel, brown sugar, alcohol, with a bit of grapefruit bite. Taste is sweet caramel and sugar, with warm alcohol burn, and a slightly bitter grapefruit hoppy bite. Smooth and crisp mouthfeel, slightly syrupy. A good barley wine.

Pours a murky dull orange brown with a small thin white head. Sweet caramel malt aroma, spicy and fruity hops with a bit of alcohol and grapes, plasticy. First taste is sweet and nutty, like fresh maple syrup. Lots of alcohol and tastes very plasticy. After a few sips the rich caramele smoothes out a bit and flavors of green grapes emerge. Light pine and quite earthy, similar to bigfoot in a way. Very long nutty aftertaste. Diluted syrup like body with faint fizzy carbonation. I couldn’t resist opening one of these... however I’m glad I have another to age a few years as it’s probably needed.

Bottle. At first minimal aroma but it keeps grown for some time. Dark copper with a light lasting thin head. Alcohol caramel toffee flavour. Very nice. Another BW to put the pen down and enjoy.

375ml bottle. Aroma is full of toffeeish malt sweetness, with touches of overripe dark fruits and medicinal alcohol, also features lighter notes of burnt sugar, phenols, dried herbs, cocoa and faint cherry. Dark reddish-copper color with an off-white, fading head. Flavor profile is massively sweet and malty, starting with a strongly peppery bitterness, becoming spicy and warming and finishing with a richly sugary, toasty, sweet malt rush, blended with hints of raisin and orange. Long lingering alcoholic warmth , red apple, citric hop flavor and what seems a bit like menthol. Moderate degree of effervescence and a prickly, mouth-coating feel, body is full as can be. Might benefit from some cellar time (one can hope, anyway).

My Bottom Line:
Magnetic earthy hoppiness takes hold of the fruity caramel malts and leads them to gripping alcohol fumes before leafy hop resins kick in and lay down the bitter law in this hugely flavorful and perhaps adolescent Barley Wine.

Further Personal Perceptions:
-There is barely a head of foam to cover the cloudy burgundy.
-Caramel was more potent in the aroma than in the flavor profile, where it tends to be overtaken by the hop character.
-Carbonation is quite low for such a big and boozy brew, creating a stern mouthfeel and low drinkability.
-Residual sweetness could be increased a tad to make the mouthfeel more luxurious and balance out the hops.
-A strawberry-like fruitiness leaks from the combination of malts, yeast, and hops.
-I think I will forget my other bottle in the cellar for a couple of years before I revisit. Although it’s already a good example of the style, I tend to prefer more refined, malt-driven examples.

Bottle; date not readable.

Bottle, from henrikb. Thanks Henrik! Opened with Fin, Loz and Traci at our "Welcome Home Frank" tasting. Dark copper, a bit of tan head. Buttery sweet old fashioned candy aroma, grass, candied grapefruit. Old man candy sweet, piney citrus bitterness. Really fun and ambitious beer, and one with the sturdiness to seem a very likely aging candidate.

<i>From a 375mL Bottle.</i> Pours a very murky, cedar bark brown color with a thin layer of quickly dissipating off-white head. Aromas of brown sugar, caramel malt melanoidins, figs, and warming alcohol. Honey and allspice. Smells very sweet and alcoholic, and what do you know, it is. Full bodied, lightly carbonated mouthfeel with a heavy, plodding texture. The flavors start out nicely, with waves of caramel, fig, and a subtle backdrop of grapefruit hops. There’s a subtle toasted nut quality to the malt at first, but this gets drowned out quickly by the scorching alcohol presence. Toward the finish, the alcohol and sweetness combine to create an unpleasant cough syrup booziness. Finishes warm and stucky, with a lingering medicinal quality.