OHanlons Thomas Hardys Ale (vintage 2003 and later)

Brewed by OHanlons
Style: Barley Wine
Whimple, England

񢉖 vintage at Kuikka, Helsinki, on 2009-09-05) Red wine colour and clear. Hardly any head. Raisin, sweetness and malts in aroma. Full bodied and dryish palate with medium carbonation. Malts, rasin, sweetness, lightly roastedness, dried plum, chcolate and bitterness in taste. Sweet and malty aftertaste. Really enjoyable. Thanks FatPhil for hint of this beer’s availability.

2007 bottle, drank in late 2009. Pours disconcertingly flat, zero carbonation and zero head, looks like dark apple juice. Aroma is sweet apples, fruit and whisky. Taste is fruity, strawberries, apples, raisens, sweet and alcoholic with a hint of belgian yeast and malts. Quite tasty actually.

2007 vintage Pours a dark mirky browm/ apple cider looking color with golden orange hues when held up to a light source and several yeast chunks floating around. No head to speak of. Leathery earthy alcohol aroma with hints of sweet apple pie, caramel and cinnamon. This beer is very still with a strong alcohol warmth in the mouthfeel. Very earthy and leathery maltiness with lots of sweet alcohol, caramel malt, apple, cider and cinnamon notes. I drank this beer when it was relatively fresh and was not very impressed. I’m curious to see how this one does with age. I will revisit at a later date.

2008 bottle. Aroma of white grape, slight hops and sweet malt. Flavor is more of the same plus a little nutty, some figs, and a solid malt backbone. Quite boozy. I can see how this would age well, though the flavors seem kind of disparate right now.

Bottle at Universitetsbaren, Århus. Dark brown colour with thin beige head. Aroma and taste of lots of notes: Raisin, plum, caramel, smoked oak and dark sugars. Very litle (allmost none) carbonation. Served way to cold, so we had to wait 90mins before it were drinkable. Very wineous and full of mouthfeel.

bottle shared by swalden28 thanks to blutt59. poured a dark amber with no head to speak of. aroma was wonderful with caramel, raisin, dark fruits, sand, and some slight ocean breeze. flavor was caramel, dark pitted fruits, and alcohol. body was syrupy. a very good beer and would like to drink again some other time.

Bottle from Blutt59 for DD gift. Pours a dark brown amber, no head, Aroma of strong, rich dark fruit, black licorice, earth and malt. Flavor is strong malt, dark fruit, black licorice, earth. Mouth feel is very heavy body, thick, low-no carbonation. Overall, a nice sipping beer, very warming.

2003-vintage,bottle # 11368. This’ll put some lead in your pencil! Colour and head were very good, as was the aroma. Poured a bit murky as I mucked up some of the sediment. No matter, as the taste was still grand.