Three Floyds Behemoth Barleywine

Brewed by Three Floyds Brewing Company
Style: Barley Wine
Munster, Indiana USA

Yellow wax. Pours milky terra cotta with a thin, but dense eggshell head. Aroma is citrus, but imediately masked by fruitcake dark fruit. Flavor starts off mildly fruity with dried cherries and oak. Finishes all alcohol and mostly pine but a little citrusy hops. Sweet, but not offensively so. The second pleasantly drinkable barleywine I have had tonight. Hides its alcohol very well, yet still has a nice warmth..

Beer pours ruby brown color with a lot of head and lacing for the abv. The flavor was a ton of citrus sweetness with a load of pine hop. The mouthfeel was a bit flat and sticky and the beer in general was difficult to drink, even for a barleywine. An okay attempt, but not going to make me shell out $20 any time soon...not even close!

Purple waxed bottle. Small vanilla head that was mostly lasting, fair amount of lacing, transparent, fizzy carbonation, and a copper hue with some orange, reddish and golden tint. The aroma was malty, caramel, citrus hops, alcohol, grapefruit, and light pine. Ditto for the flavor along with being mildly spicy, some pine, and lightly bitter. Sticky, dry mouthfeel and medium bodied. Quaffable for the style, very hoppy, worthy of a try although this isn’t a beer that I will have again because it was too hoppy tasting since I am not a true hophead.

Pours copper/amber with thin off white head. Aroma jumps out of the bottle as the top is popped with hops, caramel, and malt. Taste is malt, hops, tons of caramel. Hops not as noticeable as expected. Nice creamy mouthfeel that goes down easy. Alcohol has slight burn going down but would not have expected 12%. Great beer!

’07 (yellow wax ) bomber pours caramel brown with medium tan head. Aromas of sweet roasted malts, caramel, and hops. Tastes roasted malts and slight citrus. starts sweet but finishes hoppy, bitter and slightly dry.Looking forward into opening the ’08. Got to the ’08(purple wax). ’08 is a better blend of fruits, malts and hops. Overall a bit sweeter, hops are not as forward, and the alcohol is better hidden. I had to up my rating by 0.2 based on the ’08.

2008. Pours orange amber color. Smells of hops and citrus. Tasted tart, almost like grapfruit juice. I don’t know if that’s right, but others tasting it agreed. Might have to age one.

sampled with the phoenix crew. graciously provided by rustychiles... 2007 bomber. pours a dark honey color with not much for a head to come out and greet me. extremely sweet aroma... brown sugar, floral hops, cooked orange peel, grass and very light pine. the flavor is the same... far too cloying and sweet on the palate without the hoppy back-up dancers. it dries out a bit (only a bit) on the finish as the wall of alcohol hits. the alcohol isn’t all unpleasant and actually lends some spiciness to break up all the tiring residual sugar. full sugary body is extremely sticky, throat coating, palate wrenching (i actually had to stop drinking at this point), beyond rich and oily. i can certainly see why people dig on these, but... i’ll have to give this another shot with a really fresh bottle...

Bottle and more recently on tap. A lot of hops for a Barley wine which is okay by me. Beautiful hazy dark burgundy amber pour with a moderate head. Has a great earthy/citrus hoppy aroma balanced perfectly with strong malts. Spectacular.