OHanlons Thomas Hardys Ale (vintage 2003 and later)

Brewed by OHanlons
Style: Barley Wine
Whimple, England

2007 vintage. Well, this brew screams english barlewine. A completely different beer than it’s distant american relative. Big nose of toffee and caramel, rum soaked fruit and dark bread. Flavor is much the same, very rich, with hops taking a backseat to malt forward sweetness. Good stuff, made to age.

2005 8.5 oz bottle (No P 18668) from iowaherkeye; cloudy brown with about 1/3 of the surface covered with beige bubbles and the rest having very tiny bubbles rising for a few seconds; Nose of toffee, raisins, and dark brown sugary sweetness; flavor of sweet raisin pie, caramel, and the sweet taste of the iron supplement we gave my son Enniskillen as a baby and I took as a child; a pleasant medinciney taste.Finish is sweet, no alcohol!

2005 vintage, aged nearly 3 years. Pours a muddy caramel brown color. A bubbly tan edge with a microscopic, swirly film is all that shows at the head. Micro-spots of lacing are all that is left behind. The aroma shows ultra-sweet caramel, nougat, brown sugar, vanilla, and stewed raisons. It smells great, but almost too sweet to drink, and the first sip confirms that notion. Flavors are pure, unadulterated, sweet malts. Melted caramel, brown sugar, vanilla, buttery toffee, and honey assault the palate with ridiculous amounts of sweetness. Tastes like liquid candy. I was hoping that 3 years would mellow this out, but I was dead wrong. This brew is as sweet today as it was back in 2005, and I truthfully can’t see it ever mellowing to an acceptable level of sweetness. This is the most over-the-top, intensely sweet beer I have ever had. Diabetics beware, this one might just kill you. The mouthfeel is thick, sugary, and insanely sticky. My teeth hurt just thinking about this brew. If you’re into pure liquid sugar, then this is your beer. Otherwise, let this sucker mellow for a decade or two before you come back to it. I’ll take a hoppy, American barleywine over this monster any day of the week.

250ml Bottle, 2007 #11257: Rating #350 for me, figured it’s a relaxing Sunday and I’d crack something different for the milestone. Started my pour with no sediment to try - poured out a cloudy copper brown, absolutely zero head. Extremely potent aroma, quite sour, fruity, vanilla, spicy, oak, clove, red wine.. wow. Flavour is pretty intense, coating your tongue almost immediately with a heavy duty brown sugar and hop pairing. Lots of alcohol present and I’m starting to get new flavours: raisins, dates, toffee, burnt sugar, honey, rum, yeast, and molasses. I added the rest - with sediment - and was surprised that not much was added in terms of flavour or nose. Very, very nice - I’m convinced, I’ll be buying some more to age for the forseeable future.

2007 bottle # 28719 deep ruby pour , thin off white head, some. aroma of alcohol ,licorice,toffee ,dates and very port like. oily ,syrupy mouthfeel,very low carbonation. flavor is very sweet dark fruits ,honey,brown sugar,and some nuttiness. suprisingly bitter in the finsh also dry and warming . might be even better aged but I could never do it .excellent beer

2007 bottle marked at 11.7% (bottle no. 49623). Pours like syrup with no sign of carbonation whatsoever. Amber-reddish color that is opaque with lots of sediment. Some alcohol legs left on the glass. Aroma has Madiera qualities in it, combining brown sugar, toffee, yeast, dates, and a hint of licoricce (and alcohol upon agitation). No carbonation, tastes like a weak sherry with some brown sugar poured in. No bubbles, just a syrupy texture and some non discreet alcohol warming. I am not sure just how long this will age ad it already seems a bit oxidized. Quite yummy overall.

Pours a murky reddish brown with little to no carbination. Aroma of rasins, fruit yeast and honey. Taste of rasins, honey and a nice nuttiness. Yumm! This a nice nightcap.

2006 13.3% bottle, wonderful Port wine aroma, more like Medeira wine, also oaky Scotch, vaniilla and butterscotch. Brown with a foamy tan head that thins but sticks around. Sweet Madeira grapey wine, oaky Scotch, maple butterscotch, sweet brandy taste. A great nightcap in winter, it packs a punch!!