Three Floyds Behemoth Barleywine

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

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.

Maybe I should have waited longer to try this. Not much head. A large abundance of different flavors. Quite malty.

650 ml bottle form archer liquors. Cloudy brown with almost no head. Orange, pine-apple, white wine, and brown sugar aroma. Thick sticky palate. Tastes of sweet candy caramel, citrus, especially orange, tropical fruit notes, and a sugar and alcohol finish. Quite good.

Thanks to Juancho. Drank it in el Flor. Spectacular, pours a cloudy yellow/brown with a nice creamy head. Smooth, of nice malts, citrus/grapefruits and hops.

ha, mine had yellow wax, yay. the color is fig and brown sugar and the head is thick and cream-vanilla colored. the aroma is grape, fig, brown sugar, and citrus. flavors of orange, lemon, grapefruit, vanilla, oak, brown sugar, figs, cloves, caramel, and an odd banana flavor that i think may be reminiscent of the previous beer..... but this cannot be demonstrated. yum. i would LOVE to hate this due to my hatred of overpriced beer, and yet, this being my first taste of the beast, i might have another shot later.

Bottled poured in a tulip. Yellow wax. Murky and putrid looking. This is not a pleasant looking beer. It looks like something you’d drop your $1500 watch in and say, "Forget it." It smells sweet, like apricots. It has a distinct hop spice aroma to it as well. It smells interesting if a touch sweet for my taste. Oh wow! The first taste really took me by surprise. I wasn’t expecting the huge hop profile even though the liquor store guy told me this was a hop monster. It almost made my eyes water. I’m having an extremely hard time pinpointing this one. It has a sweet body that you have to concentrate to find. The peppery hops don’t just sit on the body but surround it like a casing and has tendrils shooting through the body like vines growing through a sidewalk. The alcohol makes my lips tingle a bit. The whole thing is complex and endlessly interesting. Each sip is another chance to pinpoint the balance. I hope the high alcohol and hop content don’t overwhelm my senses before the end of the beer. This is a beer that you can keep on stock in the "beer cave". Break it out for company that appreciates fine beer. This is a beer that begs to be shared and enjoyed and talked about. Oh yeah, did I mention it’s ugly?