Smuttynose Barleywine Style Ale

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

Bottle.
Bright amber, smallish bubbly top
Aroma: Strong, potent hoppy nose. Quiet rich malty accents. Good clean alcohol below.(7+)
Potent kick of alcohol and hops. Green leaf , light citric hops . Sweet malt and alcohol at finish. Palate killer. This is big and certainly not shy. .

Pours bright amber with a big tan head. Aroma is fruity, nutty, and full of alcohol. Taste is fruity as well, with a HUGE alcohol kick. This is a BIG beer. Somewhat sweet on the finish. Overall a good beer, just a little too much alcohol flavor mixed in.

Bottle: Courtesy of Styles. Malty and fruity up front with some caramel and alcohol. There’s something in the aroma that lingers lightly in the background that I’m not a fan of. A little apple and some light hops. Pours a hazy deep red with an off-white head and lots of sediment. Malty up front with some caramel and light citrus. Rather hoppy finish. I like hoppy barley wines but I like the combination with the banana bread flavor and this is missing the banana bread. Still pretty good though.

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.

Bottle @ Oliver Twist, Stockholm
Dry aroma, initially chocolate and soy sauce. Quite dry palate. I doubt it will develop beyond two years in the cellar. Sweet cherries in alcohol in finsih/aftertaste along with some hops. Interesting combo.

Burgundy color. Sherry-like oxidation is unfortunately, very profound in the aroma. Nuts and ripe fruits are present in the aroma as well, with hints of peanut brittle, caramel corn and mocha. The mouth experience is quite tame, considering the style. Unfortunate oxidation initially on the palate, while on the mid-palate ripe fruity esters and mocha hints are present, which leads into a caramel, port-like finish.

Thick and rich, very little head formation. Still, amberish red in the glass. Intensely malty aroma, very little alcohol aroma, almost no hoppiness. Quite sweet in the nose. Flavor is very sweet initially, with more alcohol apparent then I would guess for 7%. Hops are really earthy and not at all sharp or prominent, pretty englishy. A very malty barleywine; good but nothing too much to separate it from the crowd.

this was more like an IPA than a BW if you went on just flavors. lots of hops, pine, carmel, and kind of a bread-y kind of feel.