Thomas Hooker Old Marley Barleywine

Brewed by Thomas Hooker Brewing Company
Style: Barley Wine
Bloomfield, Connecticut USA

(500ml bottle) Minimal tan head atop a murky dark brown body. Aroma is medium sweet, caramel/cookie, grapefruit, some pine, light wood. Taste is moderately sweet, raisin, grapefruit, caramel, cookie, light pine, wood. Alcohol warming. Watery full body with minimal carbonation.

Pours with a two-finger, light tan head that fades slowly and leaves some lace. Cloudy amber/red color. Light carbonation. Nose is roasted coffee. Heavy bodied. Starts with a roasted coffee/bitter chocolate flavor, finish is a smooth hop/malt mix, very good barleywine but DFH is better. $7.99 for a 500ml bottle from Julio’s Westborough, Ma.

Courtesy of Pailhead. Pours dark brown with ring of bubbles, fades to wispy film. Roasted grain aroma, lots of caramel and mollasses, some hops in the background. Flavor is a little musty, slightly oxidized, maybe the english hops. Slight alcohol kick. Tiny bit of sourness. Not getting any of the vanilla or bourbon. Even though aroma sort of carries the score, it’s still a nice barley wine overall.

Pours dark brown with a creamy white head that dissipates with light lacing. Aroma is mild bourbon with malt overtones. Flavor is bitter hops with vanilla undertones and a nice bourbon balance. Boubon aging is nicely done and not overpowering. A good, substantial beer.

A hazy orange-brown beer with a small brown head. The aroma is very hoppy, and the flavor is sweet, but also very hoppy combined with hints of sour grapefruit and wood.

a bottle courtesy of jjpm74 (thanks john!). a beauteous 500mL lapis lazuli-colored bottle with a swingtop and an adhesive paper ’seal’ reading "bottled in 2005." a little punt in the bottom of, a bulge in the neck, an attractive label.....but enough about the bottle. i should be analyzing its contents, not the glass, right? a red wineish tannic liquid with strong alcoholic and cherry-vanilla flavors and aromas. lots of malt sweetness and lots of citrusy and earthy hops (centennial and fuggles?) that are kind of like two schoolchildren on the playground who do their own thing. instead of playing together, they each have their own friends and sit at their own lunchtables and only interact out of necessity (for instance, when the teacher places them in the same group to make crafts). a lack of balance between this barley wine’s elements doesn’t make it unenjoyable at all, but rather it’s really a pleasant experience.

2004. Vanilla, nougat and a very subtle bourbon scent in the aroma, along with hints of hazelnut, maple, mocha and oak, as well as a very light hint of toffee and coconut. Very dark burgundy color. Caramel and toffee flavors initially, which leads into gummy fruit flavors, while on the finish, the very mild (only one month of aging) bourbon barrel flavors begin to take hold, which yields hints of vanilla and coconut.

Head is initially small, fizzy, off-white, mostly diminishing. Body is dark amber. Aroma is lightly malty (caramel, cookie), lightly hoppy (resin), with a note of sherry. Flavor is moderately sweet, lightly acidic, lightly bitter. Finish is lightly sweet, lightly acidic, moderately bitter. Medium body, watery/velvety texture, lively carbonation, lightly alcoholic.