Pisgah Hellbender Barley Wine

Brewed by Pisgah Brewing Company
Style: Barley Wine
Black Mountain, North Carolina USA

Date: March 31, 2006
Mode: Draft
Source: Barley’s, NC
Vintage: 2006
Appearance: clear dark amber, thin beige head
Aroma: sweet fruit aroma, lots of sweet fruits
Flavor: rich fruity flavor with just the right amont of sweetness, great chatacter
Overall: an excellent english barley wine right out of the gate

Date: April 11, 2008
Mode: draft
Source: barley’s
Vintage: 2008
Score: 3.8 to 4.0
Appearance: clear dark red, fine beige head, scattered drippy lace
Aroma: light sweet dark caramel aroma with a lot of fruity character
Body: creamy body
Flavor: rich dark caramel flavor, lots of fruity character, brown sugar sweetness, just enough sweetness from the dark caramel to bring out the fruityness, just enough earthy bitterness for balance
Overall: best batch yet, this will be tremendous with additional age

Date: May 24, 2008
Mode: bottle
Source: cellar party
Vintage: 2008
Score: 3.6
Aroma: more fruity character coming through on the aroma
Flavor: more earthyness in the flavor cuting back on the fruityness, long bitter finish
Overall: bottle especially needs age

Aroma: 7/10; Appearance: 7/10; Flavor: 8/10; Palate: 8/10; Overall: 17/20
Rating: 4/5.0
Drinkability: 8/10
Score: ***+/4

750ml bottle acquired in trade with NachlamSie (thanks!). Poured a mdeper and cloudy amber color with an averaged sized off white head. Aromas of dark fruits, some citrus, nutty, and caramel. Tastes of nuttiness, caramel, dark fruits, brown sugary, and chocolate. Alcohol content overall well hidden.

(750ml bottle, courtesy of Mar) Pours a cloudy reddish-brown body with a tight thick beige head. Aroma of black grapes, raisins, dates, molasses, brown sugar, and dried cherries. Flavor of molasses, dark fruit (dates, raisins), brown sugar, toasted malt, and floral hops.

bottle @Noogfest4.0-thanks kp–pours a retaining off white head and hazy/cloudy amber color. Aroma is medium malt/bready, fruit, alcohol. Taste is medium malt/bready, fruit, alcohol.

750ml bottle: Pours a transparent amber ruby with a wispy-lacing froth of off-white head. Aroma of sweet caramel malt and fresh grapefruity hops with a touch of alcohol. Starts fairly full and sweet with an earthy resiny piny bittering and flavor hop balance toward a drier bittersweet finish. Pretty well-balanced and crisp. This should age pretty well.

Bottle… Murky, caramel-colored ale with a small, creamy, off-white head and thousands of small, white floaties tooling about the glass. Good retention. Cereal grain, corn and caramel are dominant in the nose. Full-bodied with a watery mouthfeel and energetic carbonation. Caramel and lightly vinous notes. Dark fruit, thin finish. Kudos to mgumby10 for popping the top on this one!

Tried again recently. A nicely done brew that I found a little smoother, but maybe that was due to age. Noogfest ’08. The body was hazy dark copper with a khaki head. The aroma was caramel with some sweet donuts. There was also some pear. The taste was pears with some cinnamon. A nice spicy finish.

Poured a hazy brown-amber color with a large off-white head. The aroma is sweet and malty. Some fruity notes with a citrus hop back. Fruity sweet malt flavor with some candy notes. Nice hops running through. Medium-full boided. Nice warmingsensation.