Rock Bottom Chicago Bourbon Barrel-Aged English-style Barleywine

Brewed by Rock Bottom Chicago
Style: Barley Wine
Chicago, Illinois USA

Name: BA Barleywine
Brewery: Rock Bottom Brewery
Date: 08/09/2008
Mode: Draft
Source: Brewfest, Great Taste
Words: Chicago

Appearance: hazy gold, wispy beige head,
Aroma: sweet and fruity caramel malt aroma,
Flavor: rich and sweet malt flavor, lots of fruity character, light balancing bitterness,

Aroma: 7/10; Appearance: 6/10; Flavor: 8/10; Palate: 7/10; Overall: 15/20
Rating: 3.7/5.0
Drinkability: 7/10
Score: **4

At the brewpub: It poured a slightly hazed pale amber with a thick head and provided solid lacing. The aroma was boozey and had scents of toffee, red sweet cherries, vanilla, and a light hint of wood. Smooth and warming on the tongue. The flavor held more Bourbon and alcohol notes, but they blended well with the other sensations noted above. Very nice.

On tap at GTMW. Poured brighter medium golden with a short, sticky cap of white head. The aroma picked up sweeter bourbon and toasted pale malts paired with spicy bourbon (that singed the nose hairs a bit) and floral hoppage.. dry and decidedly English-style. The flavor had warm, toasty pale malts at the core with a touch of citrus zest and a hint of acetone surrounding.. increasing bourbon toward the finish.. didn’t give the best impression at the end. Medium-plus bodied and quite sharp on the palate.. warmed the belly greatly.

FoBAB 2008. Poured a clear light orange color with an off white head that laced the glass. Smelled of cotton candy, caramel, and toffee with subdued barrel imparted notes of bourbon and vanilla. Full bodied and sweet with cotton candy, bourbon, vanilla, and dark fruit. A raw alcohol note detracted a bit, but this was a good beer.

on tap at RB Chicago. Let me start this review by saying the menu attempted to claim this was BA SubZero, but it is obvious it is the English Style Barleywine released 5 months prior. This version was aged 4 months in the barrel. The color and flavor is similar and the timing of the non-barrel aged release was about 5 months ago... SubZero did not look or taste like this beer. On to the review....pours hazy light amber with off white head. aroma is loaded with vanilla, bourbon, sharp oakiness, as it warmed more very sweet cotton candy came out in the nose. flavors of vanilla, oak, bourbon, sweet caramel, and cotton candy. a rather boozy and syrupy body. this is one of those beer that i liked quite a bit at first but towards the end got rather cloying. i think the beer needs to age longer but the bourbon would truly take over if that happened. still tasty and i would love another sample of it.3.8.

7/28/08, draft, this version aged 6 months in the barrel. Oh man those extra 2 months made this cloyingly sweet, vanilla bomb, and really boozy. this is really hard to drink and not nearly as balanced as the 4month version. still I dont think this beer was right for the barrel, and I wish I could try it just aged in kegs for a few years (not aged in barrel at all!).3.2.

On tap at the brewery. The beer pours a bit hazy muddy type of color w/ a small dense white head and good lacing. Aroma is big full of bourbon and oak, a good amount of alcohol bordering on fuesal, some orange rind and basic grapefruit aromas hints of toffee.. Full well coated pal. Flavor is pretty good a lot of barreling comes through, a pretty aggressive alcohol, some light perfume almost hoped bittering, that is very light and hints of a toffee.. It’s ok.

tap at Rock Bottom Chicago...for the record this is not my 700th which was Stonewall Ale but i can’t find the damn rating....anyhow, pours a semi-transparent mostly cloudy orange brown with a soapy white head.... aroma of wood, caramel, toffee, and ripened fruit... flavors follow suit if only a little more sugary sweet, some bitterness on the backend with some mild carbonation to go along with it.

On tap at the brewery. Hazy medium amber color with small white head. Aroma is big bourbon cherry and alc with a good amount of malt sweetness, I am really digging this aroma. Flavor is alc and boozy upfront but is very well balanced with the sweet malt body, very fruity with the bourbon cherry, citrus, grapefruit, orange, big hop prenscene as well. Medium body, creamy. One of the best BA beers I’ve had from RB chicago, a very well balanced BA Barleywine.