Three Floyds Behemoth Barleywine

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

Bottle 2005 Pink Wax (Original Bottling) Sampled 11/2007. Hazy amber pour with a creamy thick khaki colored head. Resiny hops evident in the aroma, along with tons of sweet back. Caramel malt, gingersnap cookies, and a vanilla hint. Full bodied with a dense mouth feel. Flavor has thick caramel malts, with lots of resiny hops that have held up well over the two years. Has some brown sugar and vanilla stickiness, but it isn’t cloying. Later flavors give off some roasted nuttiness, and a very late dark toffee hint with tons of resiny hop bitterness, which has a minty character when it warms. They didn’t skimp out on any of the ingredients while brewing this stuff. Not the most complex Barley Wine, just huge everywhere, well crafted, and darn tasty.

Pink wax top. Great big juicy hops aroma. Tons of resinous hops and spruce. Decent sized light beige head of fine bubbles that reduces rather quickly. Very light carbonation. Color is a glowing bright orange. Light toasted malt and caramel flavor. Thick, sweet syrypy and loaded with hops. Plenty of malts for balance. Big alcohol kick that numbs the gums and tongue. Finishes sweet with some lingering caramel malts. Flavor not quite as juicy as the aroma but still a world class barleywine.

Poured from yellow wax bottle. Created a nice frothy head, creamy, and viscous. The aromas were complex with sweet caramel, pine, and slight alcohol. The flavor profile was rediculously large, full of caramel, citrus, pine, nuts, and acohol. The hop flavors were slight, compared to the malt and alcohol abundance. However, they did impact your palate 1/2 -3/4 way through, and then the tingle set in full of alcohol. Not a fan of barley per se, but this was drinkable for sure.

Poured from a 22 oz, pink wax. Slightly hazy amber pour. Singed toffee cake, bourbon on the nose; melon and grapefruit hoppiness is well-integrated, finishing with roasted nuts. Dark and dank flavor of old hops and thick malt; heavily toasted, almost burnt and wildly fruity in orange, pear, and cranberry tones. Starchy. Hot rum lets in a little warmth and spice. Low carbonation, medium bodied palate. Finishes with burnt cinnamon toast. Brutish, but restrained enough to be pleasant. Thanks for sharing, Jeff!

Yellow wax 07 bomber bottle. Pours well with a generous helping of lacing. Deep amber color. Spicy noticeable alcohol presence. Soft voluminous malts. Hops are there, but don’t overpower. Seems as this has aged well, becoming a soft, easy sipping quaffer. For a barleywine this is exactly what I expect.

Wow! Everything I’d hope from Three Floyds in a Barleywine pours out just as I should have expected. Thick and vicious! Looks like caramel milk when pouring. The glass accepts the contents quickly and as it turns about in heavy thick scarvings of yellow ochre swirls and light brown whirls. It builds a lightly thick capping of foam lightly with large billowing bubbles which soap up slowly to dwindle down to its frothy middling level before finally fading to a thick whispy skim always sitting. The color finally settles a dark rusty brown with a flash of dark orange within. Fuckin’ Beautiful ! Aroma is a nice mix of highly present caramel goo mixed with a perfumed tight little sent of deep orange, deeper lemon, deepest pineapple, and some tattered pine sap thrown in. Clean, robust, and boastfully delightful on the nose. But oh my the taste, the taste!...remarkable delicious! Holy fuck! ...Yum! Need I say more? OK maybe I should try. Ummm.... how ’bout; Thick, sugary sweet laden caramel flavors are big and twisted upon a piney citrus juiced, flowery palate of goodness! Yet delicately woven with one melange of fun hoppiness that plants a bunch of fun and long lasting durations of slightly pithy bitterness interwoven within the thick juicy pulp of each fruit I might be able to summon in the ideas of tropical treats and freshness. Peach, nectarine, pineapple, orange, mango, lemon, tangerine, apple, red grapefruit, and a flinting of green grape. Yum! No banana I’m afraid. But the the caramel sweetened firmness more than enough makes up for it. Believe me. It’s Heavenly! The feel is thick and slippery, with a girth that stands on it own with a big, tall standing malt body made of caramel goodness and plastered with a hoppy touch of bite and bitterness that eludes the parching areas and goes right for the easy going goodness of juicy balance and alcohol. Why, because the 12.5 % is no where to be found until it hits the inside the head quickly after dispersing most of the contents of the bottle to the glass and then to the lips. No doubt. Creamy and lush, full and balanced; this stuff rocks with unbelievable drinkable ease and too much, so much so, I’m uncomprehensible to the point of utmost uncomprehensiblity?! I can’t handle it, but love it! Great stuff!

650 ML yellow wax 2007 bottle. Pours with very sparse head, with a rustic brown color. Caramel and citrus odors are apparent. The first sip has so many flavors you need another just to begin to identify everything in it. It mainly starts off with a strong taste of sweet malts that slowly morphs into really great hoppy bitterness. A really good, complex beer.

Big thanks to drmatt on this one. 22oz bomber. Yellow wax seal. Aroma of caramel and brown sugar up front. Some fairly fruity hops. Toffee. Alcohol barely noticeable at all. Pours dark copper with some pretty ruby highlights. Creamy brown head with sticky lacing. Flavor is very well balanced between sweet, sticky malt and bitter hops. Caramel, toffee, creamy nuttiness and molasses. Tons and tons of flavor, but strikes a perfect balance. Full bodied on the palate. Quite creamy. Decent carbonation. Finishes with a lingering pine and citrus hoppiness. An excellent beer.