Sprecher Barley Wine Ale

Brewed by Sprecher Brewing Company
Style: Barley Wine
Glendale, Wisconsin USA

Bottle... Clear orange ale with a small, fizzy, off-white head. The nose is similar to that of a Belgian abbey or tripel. It’s malty (caramel), but also chock full of fruity and spicy esters and phenols; pear, banana, peach, mild clove, and sherry. The flavor is mega-sweet; fruity, spicy and vinous. No semblance of balance. Full-bodied and sticky with lively carbonation. Sweet, fruity finish. Odd, but good barley wine. Thanks go out to WBC for the trade which landed me this bottle!

Fairly standard barley wine. Pours an amber color with minimal head. Sweet caramel aroma. Sweet taste mild hops, little alcohol. A quality brew but nothing stands out, very average.

Bottle: Shared by Styles. Nutty caramel and alcohol aroma. Pours a bright orangish-amber with a small off-white head. Overly sweet with lots of residual sugar. Nutty with some brown sugar in the middle. Light alcohol in the finish. Too sweet for me. Sticky and syruppy mouthfeel.

Provided by Styles: Amber hue with an oily film but no head or lace. The aroma was spicy and caramelized, oxidized and boardy, and a bit medicinal. The taste is very olde school barley wine with rich fruits over a biscuity and papery base. Sweet sugary components dominate the flavor but it was unbalanced and cloy. The feel is sticky, soft, thin and one big snore fest. Disappointing, blah, blah, blah. I can dig an aged barley wine but this failed on so many levels.

On tap during Cheers for a Cure


There was one 16-ounce bottle of this at the Sprecher table, so I thought I would give it a shot. After all, I am unlikely to actually spring for a bottle of this myself. They kindly opened it and poured a sample from which I was able to surmise I was definitely glad I did not consider buying this at the store. Still, for a beer it is not bad. For a barley wine though I am sorely disappointed - it lacked the complexity and density I would expect from something advertising itself as such.

Aroma / Appearance - Syruppy sweet aroma was a mixture of honey, caramel, nuts, pears and a damp fall day. The body was the color of a rich orange sunset. The alcoholic content was obvious in the sheets of lacing sliding down the side of the sampler.

Flavor / Palate - Syruppy sweet on first sip with a consistancy of corn syrup. Honey, caramel, Hershey’s chocolate, vanilla and cherry pits were underneath once my mouth was done puckering from the sweetness. The finish was dry and clean, though excessively buttery. In the end I could tell this was almost ten percent but the alcohol did not reveal itself until the last of the six ounce sample.

Bottle. 2006 vintage. Pours a reddish copper with almost no head. I don’t know what to make of this. There is strong butterscotch, cottoncandy, various liqueurs, along with caramel malt notes and very little hop presence. ABV is well hidden but it finishes way too sweet. On a side note, I had a sample of a 1999 vintage about six months ago and found that one to have aged very well.

Big hiss as the cap comes off, filling in the snifter as translucent and scarlet copper in color. A dusty, grayish and big bubbled wrung and cascading lace paint a pretty picture. Aroma is a bit of a teeter totter - brandy, amaretto liquor, sweet red currant avec cheesecake - but the balance favors the fat kid at the other end, throwing things off with medicinal children’s Tylenol, sugar beets meeting radishes, orange toxins, and refrigerated pepperoni pizza. That being said, the flavor takes a nice upswing. Sweet surplus rings with sugar cubes in grandad’s brandy manhattan. Amaretto charged buttered rum toffee centers. Vanilla port and maple buttercream team with sweet nectar induced caramelized wheat. Relentless sweetness is the Achilles heel with the final five ounces. Highly viscous and syrupy, but there’s a desirable curtness from the alcohol and hop presence underneath it all. Balance is all about the sweet treat traits right now; in five years, everyone will be singing a different tune. Finish rings with almond-esque sugar cubes, maple glazed danishes and a hint of easy going marsala. This is definitely one to share with a friend, as it becomes nearly painful to drink with half of the liquid still remaining in said snifter.

Smells very good; has that molasses. Really sweet, almost too much, but not to the extent of sweetness found in the Lee’s. Would be one that would get better with age. I have to say that I can’t understand the dis-satisfaction that so many people are expressing.