Schooners Old Diablo

Brewed by Schooners Grille & Brewery
Style: Barley Wine
Antioch, California USA

A clean and soft barleywine with alot of soft fruit and nuts characters. Very appraochable barleywine that hides its abv extremely well. Tending towards the English style it is much more delicate than most ameriacn barleywines.
Earlier Rating: 3/11/2005 Total Score: 4.1
Winner of the toronado barley wine fest 05. Madeira and brandy notes. Oak forward vanilla creme. Nice roasted malt and toffee flavors very well balanced good hop bitterness not overly floral. Clean and semi sweet finish with charred oak follow thru.

amber body with a samll white head.nice aroma of caramel,brown sugar,and cotton candy.flavor was much of the same with some grapefruit hops in the finish.balance and mouthfeel were perfect.

Dark brown colour. Not much head. A decent starter barley wine that, while slightly cabbagey in the nose, holds together some civilized roasty character, light chocolate and a bit of nuttiness. Not intimidating but has enough to pique a newcomer’s interest in the style.

Bottled. Very dark brown. Coffee aroma. Dryish with full-medium body and clean, rounded mouthfeel. Nutty with notes of chocolate. Surprisingly low bitterness.

2/19/05. On tap at Toronado Barleywine Festival ’04 in San Francisco, CA 2/19/05. 2002 Vintage. Clear crisp shine of orange with a touch of brown. No head and no lacing at all. Sweet and inviting hop and oily bitter nose. Mostly covered with a sweet buttery orange cake aroma. Taste has an orangey oily bitterness as well-- not like the citrusy Double IPA stuff, but more like orange candy with a dark malt creamy/oily texture. Medium-full body serves it well. Finish prickles and packs a punch of surprising delicateness and control in its heft. Very good stuff.

02.19.05 2002 on tap at Toronado BWF. Got wind that #55 was in demand so we jumped the gun to get samples of this gem. Dark and clouded, it wasn’t too pretty, even as barleywines go. Massive, malty, oakey, tawny port aromas. Mike, my cohort in the BWF debauchery, agreed that this stuff smelled like an old tawny or good, dry sherry. Tasted like it, too. Nice hops came in to finish, lending a qualifying bitterness but never taking away from the cool, vinous action. Finished bitter or I might have thought it a port to the end. So smooth, so drinkable, so pleasing. Rad beer that I wish more had the chance to try before it kicked early saturday. One of the highlights of the fest.

Tap @ Toronado Barley Wine Festival. Amber color with a strong alcohol aroma with some candy and sweetness. This one had 75 IBUs.