Three Floyds Behemoth Barleywine

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

Yellow wax. Was planning on saving this one for a while, but couldn’t help myself. Aroma a thick caramel with typical FFF grapefruit surging and pulsing along the undertow. Ruby body, clear with slow-rising carbonation and lacing, rocky, luscious tan head. Sweet floral notes with caramel and lots of pine, with sticky overripe fruit underpinning a dash of Schwarzbrot. Thick, full body, dripping with alcohol, really boozy. Tongue-numbing and hefty middle, big cherries and a scoop of hop resin finishing out the very dry end and toffee-leaning aftertaste. On the whole, this is the logical, predictable FFF take on the style, down to the last detail, very delicious. And though she’s a solid, worthy offering, this gal’s not worth the $16 (in-state).

Pours caramel / bronze with a modest dense tan head. The aroma is hoppy as all hell with lots of tropical simcoe-like traits, some pine and citrus, rich caramel malt backing, molasseses and biscuit - excellent. Thick body that is very smooth and used oil weight with a small amount of carbonation. This beer is massive in all the rich ways for a barleywine. The flavor starts with sweet tropical fruits (pineapple and passion fruit mainly), lush caramel malt, dark fruits, brown sugar, subdued abv warmth, rich toffee-like malts and some sharpness. The finish is highly resiny with all the hops, deep rich sweet malt and bitter complex hops leading to a puckering blend of the two. This is significantly better than I expected. I’ll try to get another as this would be interesting to compare the somewhat fresh to the aged version.

(Bottle, thanks JCapriotti) Pours beautiful clear deep red. Intense malt and hop aroma with fat tones of caramel, syrup, honey and fudge.English fruit cake and dried fruits like raisins, figs and apricots. Also some fennel, rose pepper, vanilla and hyacinth. Hops bring citrus - mostly grapefruit, but also some resin, apricot and tiny notes of pine, herbal tea and flowers. Hints of other more subtle tropical fruits underneath the massive hop blanket. Some alcohol warmth. Rather creamy nose. Fruity, caramelly and very hoppy flavour with notable alcohol warmth. Complex maltiness of syrup, fudge, dark bread and a sweet fruitiness. The finish is quite dry and floral/citric tart. Hints of vanilla. Thick, chewy, round, soft and a bit sticky mouthfeel. Light to medium sweet with late medium bitterness. Full body. Typical, massive FFF, full in every corner styley. Leaves your palate numb. Fantastic.

Bomber with yellow wax. Well, I guess it’s almost fall month or so away, so I think it’s time enough for this brew to mature. Quite a robust hoppy and malt nose at first. Caramel, oak, a bit of orange notes. with the malt overtones intermingling with a nice hop aroma. Appearance is a murky brownish/red with a medium sized tan head that diminshes into a soapy tan film. Taste is a nice caramel malt characteristic, a smokey oak flavor, and a predominant hop characteristics intertwind. Palate has a rather sticky and sweet aftertaste with a slight alcohol burn in the back of the throat. Overall, as a barley wine it’s really drinkable, but not the best ever that I’ve had.

In a word, hoppy drinkable barleywine. Nicely hopped up but there have been other hoppy barleywines I have had that are more complex. Good head and hoppy aroma.

2 0z bottle. Pours golden orange with no head. Aroma of caramel, toffee, and sweet malt. Flavors of caramel, toffee, malt and faint hops. The barley wine flavors were there, however, they seemed muted, almost like a watered down barley wine. Very average.

22oz Bomber $15.00 Three Floyds Brewery Review #200 2007 Bottling Yellow Wax Thought I’d go with something I’ve been wanting to try for awhile now. I must say I’m pretty excited. Behemoth Blonde pours decent looking mahogany red but when held to the light it glows ruby. Small lines of carbonation bubbles crawl to the surface. A one finger ivory head formed on the pour that slowly fell and left sheet lacing as it did. Excellent looking beer. This barleywine is packed to the gills with big aromas. One thing that actually is a little subdued is the hoppiness. A little strange coming from Three Floyds, especially in a barleywine. There are hops but I expected a hop bomb. There is a lot of brown sugar and caramel. Maybe even some raisins. Doughy with a squeeze of grapefruit juice and spicy alcohol. Wonderfully complex. Definately more hops on the tongue than in the nose. This could actually be more complex in the flavor than the aroma. Brown sugar right up front fades into the doughiness of dark bread and caramel. Theres a very smooth and enjoyable nuttiness that I can’t identify. On the finish those hops take hold and the stomping begins. Grapefruit and sticky resiny hops beat all over your mouth and just linger and linger. Holding on as long as possible. Very complex and big. Just my style. As I get down to the subject of mouthfeel my lips are completely numb. It’s been awhile since a beer has done that to me and I love it. For such a heavy big brew this barleywine is in no way sticky or overly sweet. Thick body that becomes airy as it hits the back of the tongue. Silky smooth with that lingering hop kick. Great drinkability for such a big complex beer. It will easily burn out your tastebuds but that wouldn’t stop me. If I had a steady supply I would tip them back regularly. I decided to try this for my 200th review and I’m glad I did. A barleywine that’s hard to reckon with. This is the best barleywine I’ve sampled in recent memory. Another superb beer from Three Floyds. 7/7/07

Bottle, thanks to fordest and toncatcher for sharing. Nice sweet flavors, some very intense warming on the way down.