Smuttynose Barleywine Style Ale

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

2007 bottle, thanks to...um....I don’t know. Pours reddish brown with orange highlights and a moderate beige head with some lacing. Aroma definitely has "age" on it, but not too much. Notes of toffee, cherry, prune, sherry, toast, orange zest, maple, and alcohol/licorice. Taste goes towards a more desserty flavor with some brown sugar, maple, buttered toast, sherry/prune, earth, tobacco, and an abundance of dry leafy hops. Finishes with buttered toast, earthy hops, tobacco and a dry sensation. Slightly sticky from the sweet malt. Soft carbonation, thick slightly sticky mouthfeel, and a warming amount of heat. I really like this, I’m surprised the score is below the 3.8’s to be honest.

Pours a dark amber with beige head, some floaters. Sweet caramel malt aroma, floral hops, booze. Similar taste, very syrupy with a booze/bitter hop finish. Very warm in my belly. Great barley wine.

Deep copper red in color. Light tan head. Subtle and delicate nose of fruit, malt and hop. Great balance and playfullness of the sweet and bitter flavors. Malts and hops are well balanced. Pretty darn good. But nothing to make it a stand out from other barley wines.

2007 Bomber shared at the Butters’ 1500 tasting. Pours a clear dark ruby with wispy off white head. Nose is suprisingly grapefruity hop despite the age, and just a twinge of alcohol burn. Flavor is rum soaked fruits, alcohol, and still some resiny hops. Definitely has a good heartburn warming. Great barleywine, good price, not digging the label, but still damn good.

Pours a lasting ring of beige head with a deep copper body. Aromas of caramelized malts, alcohol, resin hops, and plastic. Flavor is resin and caramel bread. Bitter, sticky, and alcohol finish.

2006 bottle, so I suppose this is about 3 year old. I’d say it’s drinking well right now. Pours hazy dark amber with thin beige head that turns into a ring around the edge. Actually more cloudy and more brown after I pour the second half of the bottle into my Duvel glass. Sweet malty goodness on the nose, and noticeable hop presence that has turned into something sweeter and more oily. Fruits (plum, maybe), slight citrus, and complex caramel, sugars, and toffee nose and flavors. Body is not too heavy, and the alcohol is not overwhelming by any means. I am really digging this.

Bottle and draft. Pours a amber body with a tan head. Sweet malty caramel body with a an etoh latent fruity plum and butter character. Sweet with a modest warming and some lighter pine and fruity hop character. Nice.

Drinkable and the barley taste is there, it’s a typical American barleywine, hopped up on C hop, with citrus taste, a barley dominated substantial aroma. Peachy colour with small and significant head.A bit of bourbon corn sourness from the Jack Daniels barreling of one year. Still, I am glad I cellared it for a year.