Moylans Old Blarney Barley Wine

Brewed by Moylans Brewery & Restaurant
Style: Barley Wine
Novato, California USA

22. Believe this would be the 06; I bought it June ’06 in Portland OR. Pours deep murky mahogany with occasional garnet highlights. Thick, pyramidding, moussy tan head with thick soup bubbles. Sheets of webby lace down the sides of the glass. Nice caramel and toffee nose with grain husk mixed in; even just a year at fridge temps seems to have the sugary glop right where it needs to be. Body’s on the high side of medium and shows good carb, plenty of nice forward flavors. Mid-palate’s a great mix of earthy BW goodness: wet leaves, tobacco, caramel, toffee, earth, grain husk, toast. Tidy little hollow resin-y pop at the end. Very clean and well organized and flavorful; looks, smells, and feels great. Beautiful work by the lads from Novato.

Dark dark orange and very cloudy. Nice head. Very earthy, lots of malt flavor but a lot of pine hop flavor too. I like this one, makes me feel like I’m camping. Thumbs up. [Tasted next to Green Flash Barleywine] The Moylans has more hop flavor; the Green Flash has much more hop sting but not as much hop flavor.

Deep brown with big light brown head. Sweet malty aroma with floral notes. Taste is same, and nicely complimented by hops. Sweet taste of honey sometimes borders on cloying. Quite good though $6/22oz

65 cl bottle. Dark reddish amber colour with a nice head. Lovely aroma of burned caramel, malt and some hops. Nice tasty flavour of malt, caramel some flowerish, little wine-like and bitter and warm finish, very nice endeed.

Thank you to Drewbeerme for sharing his ’05 so we could have a two year vertical. ’05 has aged real well, toffee caramel, little carbonation and hops are subdued, almost not there. Aroma matches the taste and body is typical med to full of a barley wine. ’06 is still very young and as close as you can get to a distinctive, unbalanced hopped up american barleywine (whew). I still like what it is with some orange and ighter fruits that aren’t as distinctive in the aged version. Defintely a barleywine I’d like to cellar in the future.

22oz bottle. mini-vertical 05 and 06. 05 version (aged about 20months) first, pours hazy amber-copper with white head (sediment in this but not in the 06 and i left 1oz in the bottle, sediment from age? or was the 05 bottle conditoned and not the 06). nose has noticible oxidation, but in a good way, notes of port wine, plums, caramel, chocolate, tobacco, coconuts, and biscuit. flavors of caramel, subtle chocolate, and plums.flavor has nice oxidized notes. alcohol is well hidden. a pretty tasty aged barleywine but i dont think this would last another year. i’m guessing this beer is still good at about 18-30 months of age. 8/4/8/4/16 .................................................. version, pours bright amber with off white head. nose is pretty hoppy, fruity hops with caramel and a hint of alcohol. flavor has nice hop bitterness, piney and grapefruit hops, caramel, and brown sugar. alcohol is well hidden. the 06 is sort of a straight forward american barleywine, a tasty hoppy barleywine but nothing special. 7/4/7/4/14.....................rating from 05 vintage at about 20months.

Bomber from bottletrek.com. Pours a dark amber with a slight red hue, big head, big lacing. Aroma of dark fruit, and sweet caramel malts. Flavor is similar, with pine notes and nice hop bite. The only complaint I have is the mouthfeel is a bit light and the high ABV is not that well hidden. Decent beer.

Bomber. Tan amber pour. Big tan head. Aroma is of dried fruit. Taste-sweet kinda underwhelming. Pretty lame BW.