Raasted Barleywine

Brewed by Raasted Bryghus
Style: Barley Wine
Randers, Denmark

Bottle. Reddish brown with minimal head.Nose of caramel with some mild hops. Big caramel flavour, chocolate, nutts.Easy drinking barley wine. Finish has nice earthy hops.

In short: A middle-of-the-road American style hoppy and moderately fruity barley wine
How: Bottle 250ml. Consumed as soon as I received it through private importations straight from the brewery but already around best-before date. !?!?
The look: Partly cloudy amber topped by a small long-lasting beige head
In long: Nose has a lot of sweetness related elements with some tobacco leaves. Taste is your average American style barley wine. Thick toffee and fruit cake are the two main flavours that came to me. Very sweet but avoids to be crunchy/sugary. No specific fruit flavour came to me, just a mix bag of fruits. The beer is well hopped with a tobacco leaves flavour providing a rough bitterness. Carbonation is soft and body feels a bit lifeless. Looking at my description I realize that description could fit a excellent barley-wine. This one just isn’t. The whole thing is definitely less than the sum of its parts. I can’t find anything wrong with it, it is good, but I had this blah sensation while drinking it. Doesn’t stand out in any way. Effective, enjoyable but very simple. This is to Barley Wine what the HB pencil is to modern days communication.

Aroma:good caramel aroma,light chocolate,light grapefruit hops aroma... Appearance:darrj redish brown,good head... Flavor:sweet,light caramel and light grapefruit hops...Light flavor for a barley wine...

My Bottom Line:
Lightly fruity caramel is joined by stern earthy hop resins for a potent and bitter Barley Wine experience.

Further Personal Perceptions:
-A veil of foam tops the cloudy terracotta.
-That earthy hop bitterness lingers long after the sip has disappeared, but is not as bright as I like.
-Even though this is an extreme beer, I’d have to say balance is achieved.
-The smooth bubbling and rotund dextrins make for a hefty mouthfeel. -The hops might be a tad citrusy early on.

Bottle.

25cl. BBF 15-1-2009, sampled 22-4-2009, so about 4 months past best before date. pours a cloudy orange, with a small thick light orange head. aroma of aged beer, aged hops, nuts, sweet malts. flavor is sweet, sawdust, licorice, faint smoked note, alc extremely well hidden, my guess from flavor would be 6 or so, raisins, faint dark fruits. nice flavor actually. kinda swet, but not too much.

Medium brown head. Deep reddish brown body. Intense chocolatey nutty nougat aroma with roasty notes. Dry cocoa raisins taste with hoppy notes. Mild, warm mouthfeel. Fullish body. Clean palate. Dry intensely malty mildly acidic hoppy aftertaste. Very very nice. Love the malt character. (0.33l bottle from KnutAlbert.)

Bottle. Nutty beer. Sweet and sour, intense and concentrated flavour. Deceivingly easy drinking, probably wise to use small bottles!

250 ml bottle. Dark brown with reddish hue. Medium-sized light beige head. Chocolatey rich caramelly flavours. Delicate malt complexity. A compact and complex beer, that is nicely balanced. Bold hoppy finish with pine and a little vegetable.