Southern Tier Back Burner

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

Source:22 oz bomber from Chucks.
Glass:Snifter.
Appearance:Dark red pour with a one finger beige head.
Aroma:Caramel and toffee with a hint of citrus.
Flavor:Heavy caramel, with a hint of chocolate and a good bitter finish.
Palate:Full body with mild carbonation.
Overall:Another excellent brew from ST. Wish I lived in NT.

Courtesy boboski. Dark amber/ruby. Small dense, tan head. Aroma is floral, vegetal, caramel/toffee, berries, resinous hops. Similar flavor- less vegetal, more resinous, piney hops, sweet caramel/toffee malt, florals, a bit of dark dried fruit showing up as it warms, subtle alcohol in the finish. Full body, balanced carbonation, lightly syrupy. Very good, drinkable.

Bottled. Courtesy of Bov. Liquorice allsorts, mint and quinces in the nose. Complex. Full bodied. Very nice. Thanks a lot Bov!

22 oz. bottle - thanks to tweety for this bonus a while back; pours a clear, dense amber with spotty white head, but mostly flat; killer nose of sweet fruit and sugar, body is quite thing, but there is tons of flavor; slight syrupy too; apples, sugar, and sherry; would love more body to it, but otherwise this is a yummy BW

22oz bottle from kryptic. I know it may not do it for everyone, but I am really beginning to enjoy the Southern Tier flavor/hop/malt profile ("house style") that they are aiming for. Excellent balance of sweet sticky (but not syrupy) malt and rich, oily, citrusy hops on the nose. Traces of lightly charred oak and cashew as well. Pours a thick, full dark amber/copper with a creamy, long lasting white head. Excellent mouthfeel for a barleywine. Not too cloying but not overly hopped making it too dry. Maple syrup, sherrywood, slightly resinous hops, toffee and caramel malt. Quite smooth and balanced very well. Not over the top in any way, in fact, quite restrained for a barleywine. Well balanced and well done.

Bottle via trade thanks to ben4321. Pours a reddish amber color with a medium off-white head and good lacing. Aroma is surprisingly hoppy, along with wood, caramel malt, and toffee. Flavor is mildly sweet and very good with caramel malt, toffee, wood, butterscotch, and some hops on the finish. Smooth on the palate with some mild bitterness. Drinkability is high for the style and ABV.

Aromas coming out in layers,first I got Christmas cake with anise,then cam fudge candy finally there came a wave of hops and thats pretty much where it stayed. Right now its like an Imperial IPA, with a sweet caramel pudding and moalssas backing and plenty of bitterness in the finish,its a mosnter in all respects,with just a little to much hopping

A clean deep mahogany body; thick beige foam is fat and sticky. Unadventurous toffee and blood orange nose; rich and balanced, if typical. Salt and sweat lacquering pungency on the malts, and there’s almost a tomato-like acidity in that saltiness, as it begins to lean toward vinous sweetness; fleshy cherries, raisins, and plums. A distinctly cellared type of wooden-citrus hop impartation, which provides a comfortable bitterness; in tandem with well-built caramel malts the distant citrus colors paint a decadent picture of dried apricots slathered in dessert, and it’s a great representation of hops in a barleywine. This bottle’s a few months old, though, and this characteristic would probably have been a bit harsh when completely fresh.

Flavor has retained a bit of the acrid metallic character of a fresh high alcohol high hop example. But it loosens itself up really quickly. Rich malts wait beneath. Toffee, wildflower honey, sweet black tea, and seared crusty sugars. Hops are lively but not brash. Soft apricots, flowers, cantaloupe, and mandarin oranges. The cookie characteristics of the malts are gooey and decadent, while the hop characteristics are vibrant but quiet enough only to complement, but alcohol increasingly, consistently, upends the balance. Tilting it back toward metallics and perfume-like hotness; it actually burns a bit toward the end, which is wholly unfortunate considering that it seemed at first to be so surprisingly drinkable. Meanwhile the sweetness is gathering a slick sheen of sugary citrus tea.

Full palate is sharp and hot, with a brisk but syrupy texture. It peters out into plainness at the finish, which is primarily sterilizing, while showing flavors of vodka, toffee, and extract vanilla. This one really shifted course at it warmed, into the booze, and away from the unassuming nuances that made it blandly pleasurable in the beginning. Not unexpected, given this brewery’s reliance on alcohol, but also somewhat disappointing, given that it might have been much better, and probably would have been had I had the patience to wait another six months or so. No sleep lost, though.