Southern Tier Back Burner

Brewed by Southern Tier Brewing Company
Style: Barley Wine
Lakewood, New York USA

Bomber shared at the Butters’ 1500 tasting. Clear ruby red pour with great light tan head for a BW. Nose of raisins, cake, plums, and boatloads of sweet maltiness. Flavor loses the cakiness, but retains all the other sweet dark fruit. No trace of such a high abv. Great sipping barleywine.

NorCal December ’07 - Another fine beer from the guys at Southern Tier. This time they deliver in the style of barleywine, a beer near and dear to me. I never can get enough of this style of beer, so when the opportunity is there to have a new one I savour it. The beer pours out a deep garnet red, clear with a nice one-finger thick head. Aromas are apples, caramel, grapefruity hops and a touch of molasses. Flavor profile is pretty much on par with the nose. Caramel, vanilla, toffee, light fleshy fruits and a bit of hops. Excellent barleywine. Hope to have this one again.

Bomber. Pours a dark, cola brown with a 1 finger off-white head that settles quickly. Aroma is sweet, malty, chocolate, ripe dark fruit, molasses, caramel, light floral esters. Flavor is also sweet and malty, chocolate, toffee, raisins, figs, and floral hops toward finish. Medium body with a malty and lightly hoppy finish.

Bottle. Poured a deep red body with thin head. Aroma is caramel, dried fruit. Flavor is sweet, caramel, light hops and dried fruit. Nice blend of hops and bitterness. Finished dry,

10th rater. Twist off cap on this 650ml bomber. Poured into a Duvel tulip glass with a very small head. Looks almost brown colored but when viewed against the light one can see this is an extremely dark ruby red color. Almost complete clarity in the light and absolutely no clarity away from the light. Aroma is hop heavy with lightly citrus-ed pine-y gassiness. Aroma is full and heavy with a spiked feel on the nostrils. Light alcohol hints hidden underneath all those hops. There is enough strong caramel maltiness underneath the hops to offset it. A very young Bigfoot-like feel to it. Taste is similarly hop filled with a similar malt flavors adding a good amount of sweetness and heaviness to the flavor but overall not as heavy as the aroma would indicate. An interplay of sweetness from malt and hops throughout. A medium-strong bitterness intersects the sweetness and finishes with a burnt caramel aftertaste. As the beer warms the alcohol becomes more apparent and the sweetness a bit overwhelming. Its a hefty body and slightly under-carbonated, creating for a strong presence on the cheeks. A very nice West Coast barleywine from a nice NYS brewer.

Tasted blind @ Cornboy’s 2nd Annual BW tasting. Don’t know how much stock I put into my own blind tastings but here it goes. Piney hops dominant aroma. Taste starts with pine and ends with slightly empty raisins. 7/3/7/3/15. Pretty close the original rating. Bottle was same batch but about a year old.

Bottle from HogTownHarry,Thanks! Dark Amber pour, slight head, lack of alcohol burn was nice, on the sweet side, Caramel, Fruits, very enjoyable, and very easy drinking for the style! another winner from Southern Tier!

Bottle. (2007 vintage). Pours a medium brown that only lets a bit of reddish light through. Head dies to a film fairly quickly. Aromas are fairly fruity (figs and dates with maybe some plum or prune) and have a bit of a citrus/pine edge. First sip reveals that this is one of the better barley wines I’ve had... don’t know if this is because it has a little age on it or what. Fruit and hops blend together in a sticky sweet maltiness that just brings a smile. Alcohol is present and fairly obvious, but doesn’t punch or distract... it seems like a natural part of the equation. There is a bit of a graininess to Back Burner, though... which I’ve not run across in a BW before and I’m not sure quite whether it is an asset or a liability. I’d drink this again... sure!

(Bottle at Pikkulintu, Helsinki, on 2009-06-10) Beautiful clear reddish brown. Small white head. Malts, tiny amount of raisin and some sweetness in aroma. Full bodied and dry palate with medium carbonation. Malts, bitterness, tine amount of raisin, sweetness, bitterness and grass in taste. Sweetish and bitter aftertaste.