Smuttynose Barleywine Style Ale

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

2004 release: Dark orange with tiny specks. Ivory-tinted lathery and rocky foam. Saliva-inducing honeysuckle, bready malt and earthy hop aroma. Lightly sappy and citrusy. Soothingly lush with soft carbonation. Impeccably conditioned. Sappy and clingy upfront, perfectly balanced by a brash sweep of earthy hops. Clean sprucey alcohol lends just enough dryness to balance the sweetness, but never detracts. Notable gullet-warmth, as well. Minute astringency, with a mere hint of dried leather and dates. Honeyed oranges lend more suppleness, while muffling the alcohol and softening the pungent lemon oils and grapefruit hop explosion. Deceptively plump and malty through and through, however, with a husky tease toward the latter half. Bitter orange peels are smoothed over by a silken malt bedding at the finish. Glory be to bottle-conditioning; at just over a year old, there’s not a single trace of oxidation. Should continue to age well.

Nice BW...Pours a amber orange color with a long lasting thin head that leaves a nice coat of lace on the glass. The aroma is that of dried fruit and is fairly non descript. Teh beer has nice body adn is on the hoppoer side of the pendulum. Caramel sweetness and toffee overtones lend to a nice barley wine.

Nice amber color with a very small head. Seducing aromas of caramel, malt and alcohol. Great, powerfull flavors of caramel, malt, hops and alcohol. Very good, very enjoyable.

Slightly translucent amber-rose in color with a little splotch in the center as the head. Aroma is strawberries and honey with a sweet hop bouquet. Some traces of phenols and alcohol, although aroma is fairly reserved. Flavor? We’ve got hops here, and lots of ’em. Pineapple orange and some lemon zest. Caramel syrup, likely the byproduct of the malt make-up. Body is solid and nearly syrupy, but in a dense, sustentative kind of way. Casts a sticky web on the palate. Balance is hops heavy, maybe because it’s young, but this is the way I like my barleywine. Finish is honeycomb and rose tea. Some hop bitterness lingers in the aftertaste and is a little numbing. The closer to 60 degrees, the better. This is some good shit. Thanks again for the Smutty connection, tpkenned! I love these New Hampshire bastards.

Pours a hazy golden brown with a frothy thick tan head. Lots of lace. Smells of big floral hops. Strong malt aromas with hints of alcohol. Underlying fruity and citrus aromas and lemon. Taste is dominated by the big malty flavors. Big caramel and hints of nut. Alcohol flavors very apparent as well. But the hops stand up to this big body with a strong hoppy/citrusy finish. Big bodied with a bitter hoppy aftertaste that stays with you. A bit sticky. Pretty drinkable for a young barleywine although not as drinkable as, say, SN Bigfoot. You can tell that this one will age beautifully. Let this one alone for a few months and I’ll bet it will be even better.

The smell of this beer is slightly alchoholic and caramel-like, and the color is deep amber. The taste is thick, rich, and smooth. It’s not too fizzy, and it has a clean finish with a slight, pleasant bite and malty tones.

(Bottle from 2004 at Akkurat, Stockholm) Pours hazy dark red. Fresh raspberries, alcohol, tons of hops, (dried) fruits, Pineapple and and some coconut aroma with buttery, toffee-ish malt and nuts. Allmond paste. Red apples and honey. Hints of wet sand. Dried fruits and notes of alcohol in flavour. Bittering hops and a bit rusty aftertaste with toffee/lingonberry hints. Some perfume. Lovely bitter but smooth mouthfeel. Medium to big body.

22oz 2007 bottle courtesy of UncleJedi, thank you very much! I always like to put my nose to the bottle immediately after opening and this one gave me a blast of hops that made em smile and transitioned into orange and toffee. The smells from my snifter are more citrus and toffee but not too hoppy. There are also a slight bit of alcohol fumes. The color is a nice red-orange and looks like an Ameican style barleywine to me. The taste is very nice, hoppy, chewy, bitterness that is nice! The second sip makes me think of bubblegum. This is a nice barleywine and almost seems West Coast like Bigfoot. Smuttynose is a brewery I don’t hear a lot about but all of their beers have been very good. Serving type: bottle Reviewed on: 04-08-2008 02:21:34