Smuttynose Barleywine Style Ale

Brewed by Smuttynose Brewing Company
Style: Barley Wine
Portsmouth, New Hampshire USA

Sept. 2006 - Beer poured cider brown with next to no head or lacing. Aroma was pine and alcohol. Flavor was really strong fruity, malty base with a lotta lot of pine hop bitterness in the finish. A strong alcohol burn astringency was the only downside. Really "BIG" beer in all aspects.

4/14/06: 2006 bottle-22 oz. Pours a clear copper color with a med, light-brown, mostly diminishing head... Aromas of light yeast, dough, cherries, with a muted brandy-like nose... Initially lightly sweet flavor with moderate acidity going into more sweetness mid-palate with a light bitterness at the medium finish... Kinda lighter bodied for a BW... OK... Nose was slightly detectable, yet delectable was the brew...

Bottle: Caramel color, nice tan head, light lacing. Nose of vegetal hops, subtle caramel malts and melanoidins. The flavor is full and malty, light alcohol and some hop bitterness. Nice finish, not too sweet. Choice barleywine.

22oz. Bottle (2007): Medium sweet aroma. Smells of malts, caramel, hops, pine, resin, and some citrus. Poured copper/amber in color with a small beige head that diminished slowly. Cloudy. Full of medium-sized particles. Good lacing. Lightly sweet, lightly bitter flavor. Tastes of malts, caramel, hops, pine, resin, alcohol, and brown sugar. Medium to full body. Thick, syrupy texture. Average carbonation. Resiny hop finish. A nice hoppy barley wine.

I don’t want to lift Braudog’s rating, but his characterization of "musky fruitiness" is spot on. It’s like fruits from the mesozoic with prehistoric pine boughs. This is beer would go well with woolly mammoth.

22 oz’er. Bright red with an almost orange tint. Nice airy, boiling head of foam, ubbles appearing and bursting every few seconds. The aroma is stark and sweet with a yeasty sense along the way. The flavor isn’t quite as over the top. This drinks with a musky fruitiness, a bit of citric acidity and an undertow of warming alcohol. I could see this as a wonderful accompaniment to a dish of game and wild vegetables. Excellent. (#3314, 2/2/2008)

Nice resiny hop aroma. Pours a clear dark red with about half a finger of lat tan head, that left good lacing on the glass. Interesting earthy taste to it. Very creamy mouthfeel, alcohol very well hidden. Well balanced, even though I’m more of a hophead.

light off white head, deep grapefruit tonals, smells like grapefruit in the morning. Sweet malts, lightly hopped, aftertaste sticks to the roof of the mouth, which is not normally a pro but in this case was delightful. Deep resounding ruby red flavor with a hint of california date at the finish.