Smuttynose Barleywine Style Ale

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

Bottle. Strong yeast nose with good hop presence, floral and sweet. Cloudy orange with a small head. Boozy and slightly sweet. Too much alcohol presence. Has potential, but not great now.

Acidic apple aroma, more like green apples actually. Pours a dark cloudy orange with a thin head. Strong alcohol flavor, apples, and a acidic dry hop finish. The Palate is rough and unbalanced. It doesn’t go down easy.

22 oz. Bottle. Poured reddish orange (maybe copper) light wasn’t great in the room. Head was one finger, rocky, bone colored. Aroma of Citrus and pine, with caramel malt in the background. First sip: Hits you with the hops, good citrus bite. In the background are the caramel and alcohol. Medium feel on the mouth. Aftertaste is alcohol and a bitter citrus, very bitter. There is also a very strong warmth all the way down. The lingering of the alcohol is a bit over the top which takes away from the flavor, mixing with the bitter hops for a really bitter burning feeling in the back of the throat. Finishes dry. Actually tastes better cooler, i let it warm too much as I was taking my time drinking it. Had to choke down the last half of the glass. It’s definatly more like a ’strong’ pale ale than a barleywine in my opinion. A decent attempt at a hoppy barleywine, but too over the top for me.

Copper color, with a hint of garnet. Small, stable beige head. Caramel, grapefruit, orange pumice soap and fortified wine scents. Nearly fizzy in feel. Sweet caramel and grapefruit zest dominate, while in the background, light spice and hints of alcohol wander about. This bomber is going to be a challenge tonight. A few english strong qualities. I taste children’s aspirin as well. Somewhat woody finish and linger is bitter and... yeah, just bitter.

On tap @ Coles Buffalo NY. Pors a stunning deep brown amber. Big sweet hop aroma. Started off a little harshwith an alcohol burn but got much better as it warmed up. Piney hops, brown sugar toffee. Pretty good

Sampled from a 22 oz bottle courtesy of radagast83. Poured dark amber with a decent head. For a barley wine this beer’s aroma was hoppy. Finished clean with a slight alcohol burn. Easy to drink though. Not a big barley wine fan but this one is now one of my favorites.

22 oz bottle, 2007. Poured a copper color, with a medium head. Aroma is pretty floral, with notes of yeast, cherry, and pines. Flavor is a lot more hoppy than I would have imagined a barley wine would be, brown sugar, malts, and slight fruit to it as well. Alcohol is not masked a whole lot, but at 10% I wouldn’t expect it to.

22oz. 2007 bottling. Nose showed some bitter and sweet fruits. Body showed more sweet fruit and surprising hops on the finish. Thought for a moment I found some rhubarb in there. Finish is crazy alcohol, with almost a vodka burn. When I first opened this I was struck at the relative complexity, but was disappointed more and more through the bottle until I eventually drain poured the last 8 oz or so.