 TAR (1992), Boulder Co., Colorado, USA
Feb 12, 2005 Draft: Foggy garnet. Microscopic bubbles slowly surface to form a small head. Unrefined aroma of spent hops, tobacco, red berries, and smoky molasses. Condensed carbonation. Heavily dense body, but equally slick. Spent hops prevail in the flavor over a shadow of tealeaves. Gritty with an earthy mulch texture and overbearing mineral and leathery astringency. Masked melon note lends much-needed softness to the body, but only somewhat compensates for its utter lack of finesse. Wet paper abounds, but, interestingly, there’s no sign of oxidation. Harsh, overexerted 2-row pungency runs rampant and compounds the overall wreck of flavors. Softly hoppy finish, but clamorously firm in body, as the more-vivid hop elements fail to blossom. While this showed no signs of overaging, the fact that it was virtually unpalatable, is quite puzzling.
Eyedrinkale (3076), Beer Town, New York, USA
Jan 9, 2005 Thanks to Tom Nickel for sharing this stuff with us. This stuff had some age but still had plenty of legs left. Heavy malt aroma and taste up front with flavors of dried fruits, toffee, caramel and sugary sweetness. Still had a nice hop bite to it along with a nice alcohol punch. I think this stuff was on the downside of what was a great life but still very enjoyable.
Crosling (1592), Loveland, Colorado, USA
Jan 7, 2005 Pitcher. A poorly balanced beer that may have gone south, considering the lack of carbonation and the meek hop activity. Brown. Hints of caramel, apples, chocolate, resinous hops and a huge scent of wood in the aroma. Caramel and chocolate in the flavor, but above all this was served nearly flat and the flavor was just not there.
DrunkAsASkunk (848), Lynnwood, Washington, USA
Dec 8, 2004 This beer was had on tap at the San Diego Strong Ale Festival 2004. This beer poured a dark mahogany and reddish mixture color with a thin tanned head and a good degree of lacing. Ahhhhh, the aroma... you can tell right away that this is a barleywine. Sweet malts, caramels and fruits clash with a sea of centennial hops. Sweet candy, caramel, cinnamon and brown sugar aroma with a hint of citrusy hops. The flavor develops into a long-lasting full bodied array of sweetness upfront followed by a bittering hoppy and cocoa, coffee bean clean finish. Slightly dry brown sugar in the finish as well. Very little alcohol presence, but just enough to pick it up in the finish. Sweet, but very well balanced and extremely full bodied...this could be a scary beer if bottled or aged!
beerguy101 (3408), Newark, California, USA
Dec 6, 2004 Tasted at the 2004 Pizza Port Strong Ale Fest Amber brown color. Medium sized white foamy head. Aroma is cinnamon, caramel and malts. A medium to full bodied barley wine. Malts are fruity and sweet, touches of cinnamon and a little oak. There is also some nice spiciness going on here as well. Slightly bitter hops. Very smooth. Touch of molasses. An excellent sipping beer. Mouthfeel is full and round. Finish is clean and smooth. Aftertaste is slightly sweet.
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