Odell India Barley Wine

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

I gotta hand it to them, the description is fairly accurate. Poured from the 1 pt 9.4 ounce bottle. Was not a fan of the appearance. Very little head , cloudy, kinda opaque body, burn orange with amber and dark yellow notes in color. Aroma was a toffee, carmel/pine mixture, some fruity esters and a touch of resin. The flavor was.. facinating. Hit with some nice flowery notes of hops up front, toffee/pine/resin just a bit of ester, finish was a moderate to decent bitter that dissapates fairly quickly. Despite the alchohol content it is very well hidden. - Either that or my mouth was just too busy trying to figure out the mixture of douple hop and huge malt to notice. Goes down smooth while you try to figure it out. Enjoyable, interesting. I’d probably pick it up again.

750ml bottle by way of BOLTZ7555 – thanks Jason! Pours a slightly hazy amber with a 2 finger foamy off-white head that leaves ok lacing. The nose is caramel, apricot, ripe orange and light pine. The taste is ripe citrus, toffee, pink grapefruit and some resin in the finish that doesn’t linger. Medium mouthfeel. More IIPA than BW, but tasty nonetheless. Thanks again J!

Pours medium amber with off-white head that is silky smooth. Nose has plenty of sweet malt with piney hops. On the palate a gooey caramel malty flavor leaps onto the palate with good carbonation, followed by a rush of hops that are very piney and herbal. Finishes sticky sweet. Comes across as more DIPA to me but I suppose it’s fine to call it "India Barleywine".

Hoppy-sweet barleywine-esque aroma. Orange color. Woody, fresh hop taste. Notes: GABF ’09

Interesting concept here. I’ve heard many a debate about whether a beer is a DIPA or a Barley wine, so the lines are crossed occasionaly. I don’t have a problem seeing the difference between the two styles, but I can see how they are similar. Also, I did read a post from Doug Odell on the Mountain forum on the BA website in which he cited a problem with too much trub and sludge in the final product, it didn’t prevent me from buying this however. Let’s see what happens! APPEARANCE- Very cloudy, amber in color. Poor appearance AROMA- Grapefruit explosion! Spicy phenols, green-apple esters, low malt aroma. TASTE- Not overbearing or cloying at all, great hop flavor! PALATE- Big body, pretty chewey. Pretty thick due to lots of yeast sediment. OVERALL- Too Yeasty. Without all of the yeast trub it would be incredible, but the yeastiness detracts from the fresh flavor that would dominate this beer.

750ml from Liquor Max - thanks, Nick! This one gushed out of the bottle like it was a prison break, dayum. After a struggle to get this under control (including counter spillage, etc.), it turned out to be a lovely pour. Vibrant, glowing orange with some sediment and - obviously - a huge pillowy head. The nose is quite fine too, with grassy hops, intense malt and BW heat, and a lingering thick sweetness. The taste, however, isn’t quite coherent yet, with each of the above elements wrestling for dominance, with the result being a slightly rough beer - as if to confirm the struggle imagery, the empty glass reveals not just sediment but big chunks that could almost be brown sugar granules. Whoa.

Pours a nice amber with a large white head. Aroma is citrus, hops, malt, bread, caramel. Flavor is citrus, bread, malt, hops, full bodied with lots of malt to balance out the hop bitterness. A good barleywine, but ouch it hurts at sixteen bucks a pop.