Smuttynose Barleywine Style Ale

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

Bottle. Hazy amber/orange color with large tan head. Fruity aroma. The taste was mildly fruity with some caramel and bitter hops in the back ground. Smooth mouthful with good balance for a barley wine. Not too sweet and not too bitter just right.

Amber brown, sweet, smooth, caramel, dark fruit, malty, balanced, slight alcohol.

Big and brawny. Copper in color, with a slim pale golden head and some racing. This is my first barley wine. Aromas aren’t as fruity, but there is some peach and esters present, with a malt, resin smell. Nice hop bite, bitter throughout, and very full as the palate goes. Bitter finish, but not too dry or sour. As I get used to it, the beer becomes smoother. I taste pine along with the hops. Well-balanced. I’d have another, but at another time. This is a bruiser at 10 percent alcohol.

2006 bottle. Perhaps a bit young, but I don’t know what will change... Standard rich copper barleywine look with a very this white head. Alcoholic bootleather. A bit of tannic astringency. Some touch of floral hops and a bit of fruit. Not so sweet as this style usually is. Low carbonation, with out a ton of substane in terms of viscosity. Even perhaps a bit watery. Alcohol is strong over a very tannic toasty malt. A bit fruity and not too sweet. This beer needs a bit more malt to really open up.

Pours a deep unfiltered ruby with a tight beaded head and a great amount of lacing. Aromas of ripe figs and oranges. Lots of hops to. Very bitter, even for the style. Very nice balance of sweet fruitiness and hop bitterness. A huge oily texture. Warming alcohol finish. A really great barley wine. Paired well with brie and pears.

nice aroma with pineapple and slight alcohol apparent. Beautiful reddish brown color covered by a tan head. Obviously heavy alcohol and hops in taste. Not bad, but not great ($3.75/22oz)

Cloudy dark copper color. Pours pretty flat with almost no head. past its prime? Uber-caramelly in aroma and flavor. Almost a little bit of cinnamon in it. I wanted a nice hoppy american style barleywine and this is not the case. borders on an american barley wine and one of those super malty and alcoholic british ones. Luckily the alcohol is well hidden in this or it would take away a lot of points. I think this may be a little old because there are still some remnants of hops but the bitterness is still there. I guess what I’m trying to say is that most barleywines come out in this balance. The outliers being fucking thomas hardy’s and the superb Bigfoot. Obviously i prefer the bigfoot (hoppy) style. As far as the meaty center goes, this is actually pretty good....(long time later) reminds me of old numbskull = good. ps. a bomber of this shit gets you rocked

Disappointing, sadly. Big and rough. Malt without complexity, hops without nuance, and big alcohol flavors. No fruitiness detected. What a bummer.