Moylans Old Blarney Barley Wine

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

22oz. bottle from DarkElf. Pours out a clear ruby hued amber color with a tremendous tan head that rises to about 1 1/2 inch and fades slowly, never dissipating completely. Fantastic sheets of lacing are left behind. Aroma is sweet estery caramel. A bit of bandaid aroma. Medium bodied and a touch overcarbonated. Nice balance of hop and malt. Caramel flavor is slowly overtaken with a modest but noticeable hop bitterness. Again, that subtle bandaid flavor that was noticed in aroma. Nicely done, certainly worth having again.

Great dark barley wine. Next to my favorite beer, stone stout. Darkest of flavors.

Bottle at 55* in a snifter. Pours a slightly hazy, deep amber/copper color with a dense light tan durable head. Sparse lacing along the glass. Aroma leans toward the malts rather than much of a hop nose. Notes of raisin, caramel, maple syrup, brown sugar and chocolate covered malt balls dominate. Some faint hop aromas make a play in the background revealing some orange and herbal spiciness. Palate is thick, syrupy and silky smooth; very pleasant. Initial taste is a well rounded hit of a malty, dark fruit sweetness, but in no way cloying. Kind of atypical for a west coast BW to have the malt profile dominate the hops, but a nice change. It all finishes with a late moderate hop bitterness bringing in some citrus and pine. The 10% alcohol is incredibly tame under all the malt. Although I prefer the hoppier BW’s, this was a nice and well done change of pace

Bottle. Pours dark copper color, thin light brown head. Aroma of caramel, syrup and a little molasses. I’m not getting any hops in the nose. Big malt profile in the taste with some bitterness. More caramel, chocolate syrup, slightly fruity. The hop bitterness at the end makes this not taste too sugary. Finish is bitter. This brew is full bodied and oily.

On tap at Toronado. This dark brown ale poured with a large tan head. The flavor was full-bodied and well-balanced with a slight tilt to malty.

Pours deep copper with a thick tan head. Good head retention and lace. Aroma has maple syrup, citrus, graitfruit, orange and pine. Taste is malty yet bitter. It does not do enough for me as far as a Barley Wine is concerned. Palate is syrupy yet bitter which is effective. The alcohol is very well disguised. Overall a nice effort but not a favorite Barley Wine by any means.

Pours reddish brown with an oily head. Viscous-looking. The aroma is awful, like a malty low-tide. The taste more than makes up for it. Heavy and sweet with malts and caramel. The hops eventually fight through in the end. Overall, it tastes like this beer should be aged. Unfortunately, that is not possible with this brew.

2005 bottle. rich and malty and fairly sweet. reddish color, white head. not too hoppy, very easy to drink. a good one to try, and possibly to drink all the time - however its not something i can get all the time. have yet to have a bad beer from these guys.