Smuttynose Barleywine Style Ale

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

[2006 Bottle] Strong alcohol presence, right from the beginning. Malty, sweet. Flavors have elements of vanilla, brown sugar/caramel and plenty of alcohol. Nice hop bitterness. Very good.

2005 bottle. Lovely dark amber color with a thin white head. Brown sugar, plum, and vanilla in the aroma. Alcohol sort of dominates the flavor of this one but there is some hints of dark fruit in the background and more vanilla. There is no mention of bourbon barrel aging on the label but it does have a bourbon like quality about it. As the beer warms I have a harder time trying to get through it. The alcohol presence is too much and damn near drowns out everything else. Not my favorite barleywine. Eventually poured out.

22oz bottled 2005. Hazy amber with a firm but fading head. Sweet, hoppy aroma following through in the flavor. Nearly a year in the bottle and still a little sticky sweet. Not too bitter relative to the body though, and not the complexity to be found in some others. I do not note the flaws others have found, and this is a decent example of a full bodied, malty-hoppy beer.

Vanilla and wood in the nose...and a prominent bourbon scent too. mostly vanilla and bourbon in flavor with an unexpectedly spritzy mouthfeel. Big alcohol burn on the way down made me dial back my drinking style a notch or three. Pretty good drink.

I had the special version at the Festival of Wood and Barrel Aged Beers in Chicago this year.

Very hazy brown orange, small head w/ a mix of large and small bubbles. Big nose--coconut, flowers, oak and vanilla. Even more vanilla and oak in flavor country. A little on the thin side for the style but w/ a nice cusion of carbonation. Very tasty.

Smooth, chewy, weighty. Sweet-smelling. Malts were sweet, with notes of chocolate-covered caramel and syrup. Very warming and cozy. Grassy bitterness. Perhaps a little oxidized, but it didn’t bother me so much under all the other weight.

I found this to be a respectable blending of barley and sour mash. The aging in a Jack Daniels barrel left this thick, without carbonation, and without a head. But, who cares? The aroma had a soft, sweet caramel leaning, bolstered by chewy fruits, a slight bitterness, and a good whiff of bourbon. Creamy and warm in the mouth, the caramel turns to toffee, the hop bitterness increases, and the alcohol steps forward to say howdy. Nice bitter, alcoholic finish.

<font size=-4><a href=http://www.ratebeer.com/events-detail.asp?eve Third Annual Festival of Barrel-Aged Beers, Chicago, IL 11/12/2005<font size=-1>

Sampled at the 3rd Annual Festival of Wood & Barrel-aged Beers held at Goose Island (Wrigleyville branch), Chicago, IL. Served from a tap. American barleywine aged in Jack Daniels barrel. Hazy amber hued having no discernable head. No discernable carbonation. Aroma of sweet malt, toffee, and raisins. Full bodied with creamy texture that starts with sharp bitterness with hints of toffee and prunes and finishes with lingering bitterness. Though on the bitter side, this is a very good, drinkable barley wine ale.