Oggis 1701 Tricentennial Barleywine

Formerly brewed at Left Coast/Oggis Pizza and Brewing Company
Style: Barley Wine
Del Mar, California USA

Standard alcohol-y, malty-sweet barley wine aroma with some hop kick, which makes it much more inviting and less cloying than most barleywines (not my favorite style, needless to say). Barley wine flavor with a KICK of hops.

On tap GABF 02: One of the best three beers there. One of maybe 10 beers I tried twice. Sweet dark malt aroma with some dark fruit in there. Brown hazy color, full body. Then you get crushed with hops. Muhahahaha!! It is bitter like mad, but a nice sweetness is there from the malts. This stuff is great and I wish I had a keg of it.

This beer mega-super-kung-fu rocks!! I detected so many things in the aroma... I lost track. However, I was able to find a very malty, cookie essence underneath the absolutely wonderful aroma of HOPS HOPS HOPS. I noted a perfume-like hop nose which blends quite nicely with an undertone of ripe grapefruit. It's a beautiful beer. Dark crimson with basically no head. Who cares what the beer looks like. A beer's head is ancillary, but that's me. The flavor is very complex. It starts off lightly sweet and moderately bitter. The alcohol is extrememely evident. The finish remained lightly sweet and moderately bitter for an average duration. A full, syrupy mouthfeel with basically no carbonation. Lightly astringent. Just a wonderful barley wine. Try it if you can get your hands on it.

Oh my. Sometimes, words fail me. Hopefully, this won’t be one of those times. Lovely, deep brown-red color. Nose is absolutely stunning, with ripe cherries, plums, port, and probably a hundred other things that I didn’t want to take the time to notice because I wanted to drink it. Flavor is hugely malty, rich, sweet, and powerful. Vinous, fruity, very port-esque. Smooth, a classic sipping brew. One of the single finest barleywines in the universe, I’d have to say. Lovely.

Deep ruby body with OK head. The aroma is perfect to style -- sweet alcohoppy. The taste is really good too --it’s sweet and hoppy yummyful.

Wow. This is a really good barley wine! I too, tried it at the Real Ale Fest 2002. It has a perfect blend of sweet (fruity) and hoppy flavors. It has a great flowery aroma. Very Very good!

An awe-inspiring exemplar of the old ale style. A moderately fruity hops dominate the nose. Pours with a full, light brown head over a ruddy brown body. Perfectly balanced flavors: big, somewhat sweet malty body with a good but not overpowering kick of bitterness. Can feel the alcohol on the palate, but its not bad at all, and is well balanced by a fine, sweet dry aftertaste. Took a well-deserved gold medal for bottle-conditioned ale at the 2002 Real Ale Festival.

Malty just not a ton of flavor is this one. Had this right after Behemoth and it just couldn’t hold a candle.