CaptainCougar (5454), Rockville, Maryland, USA
| 3.5 | Aroma | Appearance | Flavor | Palate | Overall | | 8/10 | 4/5 | 6/10 | 4/5 | 13/20 | Nov 2, 2009 Pours a transparent dark copper amber with a frothy, spotty-lacing off-white head. Rich aroma of sweet caramely malt and lots of fresh resiny grapefruity hops with a touch of light fruity esters. Starts with good fullness and chewy caramel sweetness well-balanced with a juicy citrus hop presence and a touch of earthy bitterness and a hint of soapiness toward the finish. Starts out well, but gets kinda flabby, overly bitter and unbalanced in the end.
craftycarl21 (549), South Hero, Vermont, USA
| 3.4 | Aroma | Appearance | Flavor | Palate | Overall | | 7/10 | 3/5 | 7/10 | 3/5 | 14/20 | Nov 29, 2009 Light brown pour with orange tints, average off-white head. Aroma certainly lends itself to an American barleywine; orange, grapefruit, floral hops, some spice, and a bit of gready yeast. Some caramel malt and a bit of cashew is present as well. Flavor is quite intriguing; caramel, dark floral notes like pollen, and some definite booze presence. Sweetness comes in the form of candied sugars, along with the caramel. Palate has bitterness, along with sticky sweetness. Decent barleywine overall. oteyj (755), Canterbury, New Hampshire, USA
| 3.5 | Aroma | Appearance | Flavor | Palate | Overall | | 6/10 | 3/5 | 7/10 | 4/5 | 15/20 | Nov 29, 2009 Orange-brown pour with a half finger white head that fades rather quickly. Aroma is hop oriented for the style- lots of spicy hops, orange, flowers, and a mild resin quality certainly guard a more subtle bready caramel, nuttiness, and a nasal warming alcohol. Flavor is quite sweet- some warming toffee, caramel, nut, aged oxidized vegetables, and further hop manifestations. Palate is medium to full bodied, though a little light for the style, with mild effervescence and a warming alcohol character in the finish. mcox90 (633), Wilton, USA
| 3.6 | Aroma | Appearance | Flavor | Palate | Overall | | 7/10 | 4/5 | 7/10 | 4/5 | 14/20 | Nov 28, 2009 22 oz bottle, 2009 edition. Pours a clear dark amber color with a small off white cap. Aroma is dark fruit and floral hops. Moderate in body with low carbonation. No alcohol burn despite the 10% abv. Flavor is dark fruit, brown sugar, caramel with a floral hop background. Typical barleywine flavors, just a little lighter than some. cbkschubert (1968), Cochise Co., Arizona, USA
| 3.8 | Aroma | Appearance | Flavor | Palate | Overall | | 8/10 | 4/5 | 7/10 | 4/5 | 15/20 | Nov 27, 2009 22 oz. bottle from Plaza Liquors - Pours a clear deep copper color with a one finger thick light tan head. Nice lacing. Aroma is esters, floral hops, and light toffee. Flavor is sweet malt, esters, and hops. Medium to full body. A nice beer. Magicdave6 (5490), London, Greater London, England
| 3.3 | Aroma | Appearance | Flavor | Palate | Overall | | 7/10 | 3/5 | 7/10 | 3/5 | 13/20 | Nov 24, 2009 Bottle at chris_o’s "smash Kook’s granny tasting". Alround rating: Caramel and light toffee malt sweetness, bit of citrusy fruity character, fairly clean as its not overly bottle conditioned. Nice barley wine. GG (1633), NorCal, California, USA
| 2.7 | Aroma | Appearance | Flavor | Palate | Overall | | 5/10 | 3/5 | 5/10 | 3/5 | 11/20 | Nov 23, 2009 Not sure why I had some high hopes with this one. Maybe it was the first different barleywine of the cold season and this is a "limited release". But in the end, like most Redhook beers...it’s pretty tame.
The barleywine pours out a solid amber color, crystal clear with a 1/4" off-white creamy head. There was some clinging foam stuck to the sides of the glass, but nothing I would call lacing. More like...clumping. Aroma was mostly cardboard, toasted/bready malts, and old orange juice. Flavor had some suprising high levels of residual sweetness left for a barleywine without much hop character to keep it even. I mean, I love sweet barleywines, but this just was kind of a blah sweetness. Piney hops seemed buried under the malts, and the onslaught of over-oxidized fruits just made this too hard to enjoy. TampaBrew (805), Tampa, Florida, USA
| 3.7 | Aroma | Appearance | Flavor | Palate | Overall | | 7/10 | 3/5 | 8/10 | 4/5 | 15/20 | Nov 18, 2009 POurs orange. Nose is sweet hops, citrus, sweet caramel malts, some fruity esters. Flavor is mild fruit, berries, sweet caramel and toffee, citrus and floral hops. Mild bitterness. Pretty decent. argo0 (6897), Washington DC, USA
| 3.5 | Aroma | Appearance | Flavor | Palate | Overall | | 8/10 | 3/5 | 7/10 | 3/5 | 14/20 | Nov 15, 2009 22oz bottle, bottled 9/8/09. Medium off-white head atop clear dark amber body. Aroma is moderately sweet, caramel, chocolate, some orange/candied orange, grapefruit/pine, berry. Taste is moderately sweet, caramel, some alcohol, light alcohol burn. Sticky medium-full body.
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