Moylans Old Blarney Barley Wine

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

2nd beer of Eugene’s BW Festival. Poured into a brandy glass. Appearance is the best part of this beer. Pours with a big head, milk off white, pillowy. Color is a reddish brown, just some translucence. Taste and aroma are all hop , with barely any barleywine taste. And not in the lots of hops and lots of barleywine taste but just piney herbaly pine. Taste is thin. Its nice but not for a BW.

This is my first Barley Wine, so I hope my rating will be fair to the product. The Moylan’s Old Blarney Barley Wine Style Ale, pours a orangish-red color, with little head. The aroma is sweet and full of apple. The flavor follows that closely. The mouthfeel is full and slightly syrupy with plenty of apple in the taste. There is a significant amount of malt in this brew as well. Overall, a very good experience for my first Barley Wine.

Thick cloudy toffee coloured. Surprised at the thick long lasting head. Malty aroma with traces of burnt sugar, a hint of molasses and a hidden spice. Flavour is missing the exciting spices I normally associate with the style. It is a strong malty beer. Some hops but light on spice. Almost an over malted IPA. OK but no excitement.

Has an odd sweet smell to it, and poured a nice deep red amber color with a good head. Tasted of sweet fruit and a small amount of hops for a barleywine. Medium mouthfeel. Almost to sweet, but still tasted pretty good.

From a 22 oz. brown bomber bottle with a short blurb on the right side of the label and a map to the Moylan’s on the left, no bottling/freshness date, sampled at cellar temperature in a snifter. Made a good appearance, poured a murky reddish deep amber with a foamy beige head that settled into a thin lacing, minimal amount of sticking, good barley wine carbonation. Had a nose of tobacco leafiness, a subtle ripe fruitiness and chocolate toffee and caramel malts with shallow whiffs of alcohol. A semi-crisp, slick, a bit chewy and creamy smooth medium bodied mouth feel, good sipping drinkability, dangerously quaffable if not careful. Very tasty with that Moylan’s unique touch, tobacco leafiness, a smooth while at the same time chewy hop bitterness, balanced by a chocolate toffee and caramel maltiness, the alcohol is well masked and only provides a slow, low warmth, the fruitiness is subtle and apple and pear-like, and a dryish leaf hoppy and malty finish. This is a really nice barley wine from Moylan’s, tasty, different and unique among west coast brewers, like their brews in general.

Bottled. Pured dark brown, with ruby highlights and a tight, tan head. Malty, fruity nose, and a sweet, malt flavor with caramel and fruit tones. A bit of hops in the finish. The mouth feel could have been a bit thicker, and I never quite got the feel that I was drinking a Barley Wine, but a nice brew nonetheless.

22 Oz. Bottle Clear ruddied sienna poour, with a tan foam head. All I can reach out of the aroma is a distant waft of an Ecto Cooler juice box, seriously. I would have scored much lower on aroma, if it hadn’t been a memory evoker of my Ghostbuster days. Flavor is a week, dusky sweet malt, with caramel and bananas, then a fairly strong rush of hops, but they don’t really play the role they should, for me at least. They’re distant and amalgamated into a consistent one dimensional hop presentation, mostly in a lemongrasseqsue style. Smack of lemon zest. Palate seems heavily watery to me, but I will admit that it seemed to hide the alcohol extremely well, especially for a 10% that doesn’t seem to have too much depth. Some toffee lingers. Still appreciated Andy! I love the opportunity to try any Barleywine!

Pours a one finger, light tan head that fades slowly leaving some lacing. Cloudy ruby color. Medium carbonation and medium bodied. Roasted coffee nose. Starts and finishes with a burnt spicey coffee flavor, lingering bitter aftertaste, still its drinkable but there are much better barleywines like N’ice Chouffe Belgian Barley Wine. $6.10 for a 22oz bottle from Colonial Spirits Acton, Ma.