Pike Old Bawdy Barley Wine

Taster – Beveridge Place Barleywine Bacchanal – Seattle, WA
Aroma: Strong aroma with caramel, and hops in the nose.
Appearance: Amber in color, clear with a thin head.
Flavor: A good amount of malts and hops this was a very nice barley wine.
Palate: Sweet with a dry finish.
Overall: A very nice brew this was one of the better beers for the night.

2007 bomber. Poured clear reddish-orange with a short cap of off-white head. The aroma was strong with syrupy caramel accented by smoky peat, orange rinds, and herbal notes.. quite tangy on the back. The flavor was rather on the sharp side with sour smoke and lighter fruits stealing the show a bit.. the core was caramel and redder fruit-based.. finished with alcohol amping up the fruity notes and smoke. Heavier-bodied, zesty, and sharp overall on the palate.. lasted for a long while on the finish. I think this would do well with more age.

2006 vintage. I’ve had several year-old beers, but never one three years old. Opens with slight spud and pours with huge sweet apricot/tangerine aroma. Very lively aroma with some cotton candy and alcohol too. Flavor comes on like it’s going to be gigantic, but then lets off very smooth. Sweet caramel and hints of old smoke mix like a tapestry with the aged deep orange ripe fruits. Wow, a true beer experience...I need to get some more vintage barleywines. Makes me want to brew something big.

Can’t believe I haven’t rated this one, and I’m starting out with a doozy of a vintage. 1998 bottle I picked up at Bottleworks - an 11-year-old barley wine. Poured a dark ruddy amber with a slow-forming, smallish head. Nose is remarkably similar to something like Samichlaus - ripe fruits, sweet caramel malts, some brandy and maybe a bit of bourbon. Sooo mellow, sooo smooth - the flavors have melded together beautifully during all these years in Bottleworks’ cellar. Slightly smoky, with some definite notes of peat, and the hop backbone comes through in the flavor, but it’s just enough to keep the brew from being too sweet - there’s nothing sharp or acerbic about it. I’m falling in love with this more with every sip - tastes nowhere near 10%. Velvety smooth. I’d strongly encourage everyone to grab a few bottles of this year’s brew (there actually seems to be a bunch of ’06 still wandering around on store shelves) and aging it for a good long while - this is great stuff. I’d imagine I’ll re-rate this with a slightly lower score once I try a fresher version... but who knows.

After a lackluster beer, I was ready for something to grab my tastebuds and Not. Let. Go. Thankfully, a barleywine was next so that need for flavor was about to be met, hopefully. Specifically I am speaking of the Old Bawdy Barleywine from Pike Brewing, Vintage: 2001. So I am faced not just with a hopefully delicious barleywine, but one that has also had some time to sit and stew and age to further divine perfection. As I pour her liquid art into my glass, I lavish my full attention on every single upcoming moment.

She poured dirty brown with a minor head of foam with bubbles and lace sticking to the glass and floating quite contentedly on top. She is slightly hazy and almost lazy in her beauty, inviting me to take my time to enjoy her true colors. Beer is best experienced up close and personal, so I utilize my nose and partake of a malty and sweet spicy aroma. Hints of cinnamon, nutmeg, and rich brown-sugars with creamy caramel and vanilla caress my tongue and tastebuds. Coming in second is tart and ripe dark fruits; prunes, figs, dates, and crunchy autumn apples. Definitely a maltier barleywine versus a more hop-forward barleywine, I enjoy the best of both worlds in this well balanced brew from Pike. It could be she was hoppier in her early years, but 7 years of aging could very well have mellowed and polished Old Bawdy into a classic. As my glass warms, malts soothe while a more intense hop profile nips at the finish. Bitter lemon rinds and grapefruit, oils and sticky sap mingle with the malty barleywine palate. Very delicious and divine. As I reach the end of my glass and our time together, do I detect some faint rum notes along with a pervading warmth and lingering spice? Old Bawdy almost made a turn to the hop side, but she clung stubbornly to the malty side and in turn, bore a wonderfully balanced, complex, and beautifully aged barleywine. Good job, Pike.

This was exactly what I needed to lift my spirits, inspire moments of revelry, and remind me why I love beer, despite the occasional disappointment. I don’t know if Pike is still brewing the Old Bawdy, but if they are, I recommend picking up two bottles, one to savor fresh and one to savor a few years on down the road.

Vintage 2006 Appearance: Pours a dull auburn with a pinstripe of white around the top of the glass. You cannot see through this beer, but you will be able to spot a few bubbles dancing to the top. Aroma: Apricot, peach, toffee, pear,caramel, gingerbread, and a bit of salt water. Taste: Apple cider at first, followed by caramel, chocolate, and finishes with a spicy hop finish. Mouthfeel: Thick and syrupy and sticky. The bitterness lingers on the tongue and leaves a feeling I associate with milk chocolate. Overall: This beer aged very well. I can see the oxidation creeping up, so I would say I got to drink this beer at its peak.

Bottle at Brouwers. Very nice barley wine that has its own flavor with peaty hop overtones. Spicy, holiday, sweet malty sugars. Touch under carbonated maybe. citrus and bread. Nice

2008 release; Sampled December 2008
A solid pour into my 25cl tulip glass produces almost two-fingers of frothy, tan colored foam. The beer is reddish amber color that shows a lightly hazed, orange / red tinged copper color when held up to the light and shows bubbles from the light carbonation struggling to rise up through this viscous brew. The aroma is sticky with residual malt sweetness, ample caramelized malt and some resinous, citrus focused hop character. Ample biscuit-like malt, whole grain cracker notes, touches of toffee, concentrated sweet tea and caramelized malt sugars play the leading role while hop notes of tangelo, touches of lychee, some pine needle notes and grapefruit take a secondary, supporting, but definitely quite noticeable role.

This beer is definitely thick and chewy; it has a viscous heft to it that allows it to stick to the palate initially, but a biting, ample, almost abrasive bitterness balances this out by scrubbing the palate clean of the sticky malt. The bitterness really lingers on the tongue for quite some time after a sip. The bitterness actually has a bit of green, hop astringency to it that makes it all that much more gripping. The crystal malt character contributes quite a bit to the flavor, but does not overwhelm or get too cloying; it does accentuate some citrus flavors from the hops though (grapefruit and orange zest). I like the clean, sweet, yet not cloying, lightly toasty, biscuit leaning malt character that this beer has up front.

Clearly this beer was meant to be aged, I like it fresh and aggressive though. It is quite smooth at the front of each sip with the sweet malt and citrus hop notes, but then the aggressive, scathing hop bitterness comes riding in and obliterates almost everything in its path. There is not a whole lot of complexity to this beer right now, but I have a feeling that it will pick up more of this as it mellows and ages for a couple years; I am not sure I will like it better that way though. There is only one way to find out.