Odell Curmudgeons Nip

Brewed by Odell Brewing Company
Style: Barley Wine
Fort Collins, Colorado USA

Parasitical alcohol, insolent helmsman of this brew, drives the plentiful figs and raisins away...Humbling port wine parables sometimes suggest a cough-syrup-like sweetness...Luckily, almond skins and black grapes often cross the Great Wall of Alcohol and flavor segregation is overthrown...As my pal Rastacouere cleverly remarks, this is very much like an immature Kasteel Donker...This one though is not even 8%!!...Truly baffling...

Pale copper color. No head. Nose was too faint to consider. My notes say- whatever- boring. So be it.

This beer pours an unblurred burnished copper to mahogany color with a modest head that is frothy in texture and the residual lace a fine covering sheet upon the glass. Nose is sweet malt, caramel, with hints of almonds fresh and inviting with the start quite sweet, thickly malt, and the top middling in its feel to the palate. Finish is pleasantly carbonated, the hops spicy and not overbearing, but the aftertaste has a definite alcohol bite and a big time “Belly Warming” is felt almost immediately. No mistaking this for anything but a “Big Bad Boy Barley Wine” and I get to thank my “Most Favorite Bartender” Melody from Papago Brewery for bringing me this bottle from Colorado.

Best O'dell's I've had. Resinous, fruity, lightly effervescenct, this isn't a clobeering barley wine but more backs way off, like a very present English mild, touches of rust, some must, wow!

Bottle. Strong B-wine aroma, but the mouthfeel and flavor are a big diluted and weak. Seems rather unbalanced and could use some more hops. Acrodizer's girlfriend said that it tastes like "butt juice".

Bastard gave me a bottle of this. Figgered I'd drink it. Put it in my closet. Bastard. trying to drink it now but damn kids are playing outside. GETOUTTAMYGODDAMYARD! And who the hell thinks I'm gunna like this stuff. Just cuz it's free doesn't mean I gotta like all them malts and hops starin' down my gizzard. All plum this and bitter that. Citrus? Do I need it? Suppoose they'll try fiber next. Like I give a rats ass. damn guy hadda give me just one and this damn thing's run dry.

Oh, what a weak barley wine (I don't mean ABV though). Not much aroma, flavor is nice, but average. Like Nuffield, I found this overlooked among the much better beers.

Deep caramel, amber/red color, clear. Good aroma but then this gets lost in the sea of other beers at the tasting as I keep sipping and can't find anything that isn't average. Syrupy and sweet.