North Fork Spotted Owl

Brewed by North Fork Brewery/Pizza/Beer Shrine
Style: Barley Wine
Deming, Washington USA

Name: Barley Wine
Date: September 05, 2009
Mode: Draft
Source: Brewpub
Appearance: clear dark amber, wispy beige head, bits of lace
Aroma: sweet and fruity caramel malt aroma, dark caramel sweetness, ripe fruits, light earthyness
Flavor: sweet fruity flavor, caramel candy sweetness, ripe fruits, touch of peppery alcohol, light earthyness, touch of dyactyl
Aroma: 7/10; Appearance: 7/10; Flavor: 7/10; Palate: 6/10; Overall: 13/20
Rating: 3.4/5.0
Drinkability: 6/10
Score: **+ /4

Lots of malt in the nose, hugely sweet notes of raisins, plums, dates, pears, caramel, toffee, earthy notes, and just a hint of butter that actually works very well with this. Really nice aroma actually. Nice amber pour, bright with a fizzy white head. Straight up sweet malty in the English Style - lots of caramel and toffee, tons of fruits - dates, sweet plums, raisins. Lots going on here including a decent bitterness that takes away from the high booze that was expected with this one being 12%. Smooth full bodied beer with soft carbonation. A real treat, I enjoyed this quite a bit actually.

This rating applies to the 2003 vintage which I was fortunate enough to taste yesterday at the Brewery. I had tried Spotted Owl many times over the past six years, and it was always tasty, mellow and warming, if a bit on the sweet side for my palate, and I preferred the more assertive Hair of the Frog. However, something nearly miraculous has occurred after five years of aging this beauty. It has retained the fig/date/raisin profile, but the Chinook hops (which despite their high alpha profile, I’ve never found to be very evident in Spotted Owl) have blossomed into real prominence, and yet, at this point, they are more aromatic than harshly bitter, and give the ale an amazing depth of flavors such as dry sherry, and kumquat, as well as others I couldn’t quite pin down. At this point, I am reminded very strongly of a bottle of eight year old J.W. Lee’s Harvest Ale if it were skillfullyblended with their Calvados-aged version, except the fruitiness is a wonderful addition in the this brew that the Lee’s seems to lack. Many thanks,to Eric, for a truly delightful interlude!

At Hard Liver 2006. ’05 vintage.Clear amber color. Big malty sweet nose . Thick body. Nice medium strong sweet flavors of caramel figs dates. Another good one at the fest.

Oh, this was a disgracefully tacky excuse for a barleywine. Tasted old, shroomy and very vegetal, with some herbal spiciness, vinous and ethanolic alcohol. Light fruitiness, and severely imbalanced, a trainwreck of a beer.

Tap at the 2006 Hard Liver Festival. 2005 vintage. Slightly hazy orange-amber beer, fine laced off-white head. Aroma is kind of thin and lacking in maltiness. Slightly cidery. Dirty soapy notes as well. A bit musty even. Flavour is similar, higher alcohols, ethanol and black pepper. Body isn’t there and the finish isn’t great. Some orange peel flavour adds a bit of complexity but it can’t fix this.

Draught at the brewpub (11.7%). Clear ruby. Appley nose. Sweet and syrupy with thick mouthfeel. Like apples with caramel candied in sugar, it makes my tastebuds overload from the sugar chock. I love this place, but sadly I hate the beer.

Amber colour with an orange tinge, looks similar to a very old tawny port. Aroma is sweet, some cherry and caramel with no real hops. Smooth for the high abv, lots of fruits, prune and cherry with a nice caramel balance.