Victory Old Horizontal

Brewed by Victory Brewing Company
Style: Barley Wine
Downingtown, Pennsylvania USA

Sweet aroma to it. Full body with dark reddish tint. Strong flavor of a mixture of fruits, caramel, and who knows what else. Good for the Alc content, makes me rethink my liking for barely wines

Very nice. Full on the tongue. Malty, sugary with molasses on the nose. The taste is complex. Shifts with change in temp. Dark fruits, molasses and a nice finishing bitterness.

vertical tasting of the 03/04/05 vintages. I prefer to focus on the 03 because I found it the most enjoyable, and found that the differences between all three were not profound enough to warrant separate ratings. A nice sweet brew with serious hop character despite its age. Alcohol was there, but I wouldn’t call it hot. Some cherry notes in the flavor, and some definite nuttyness as well. A sipper for sure. Looking forward to getting a fresh one of these, perhaps next year, in order to see what it has to offer.

12 oz. Bottle. 2004 Vintage. Pours a deep ruby color with virtually no head. Aroma of dark fruits, caramel and alcohol. Flavor has sweetened as the beer has mellowed with age. Hints of vanilla, brown sugar, caramel, overly ripe plums and wood. Body is well balanced with just enough hop bitterness to balance out the sugars from the malt. Some yeasty character present as there is a bit of sediment that has built up over the last three years. Finish is relatively dry with a warming alcohol presence. Perhaps Victory’s best offering.

Bottle. Aroma has notes of dried fruit, alcohol, caramel, citrus. Average sized off-white head that mostly diminished and left virtually no lace. Deep red amber hue. Flavor is sweet caramel, ripe dark fruit, red wine, alcohol, and some citrus hop bitterness on the finish. Med/full bodied with soft carbonation. Very good barley wine, one of the best. This brew made me stop and take a serious look at barley wines and that makes it special to me, just fantastic.

Must preface by saying that I’m not a huge fan of the style, but this was a favorite of the 6 that we tried at a tasting on 3/14. I find Barleywines to usually be horribly unbalanced and non-sensical, but the brewers at Victory did a great job with this one. Good malty sweetness balanced with the proper hop offset. Great job on this one.

Draught and bottles in Georgia. Pours brown and thick with a nice head. I didn’t pay much attention to the aroma and went straight for the drink. wonderful sweetness, some roasted oat flavors, molasses, and a touch of bitternes. Wonderful.

BONUS from the RealBastard, (Thanks Brent!) Pours typical BW opaque mahogony with a tight bubbled head that quickly dissipates to a halo. Nose is rich and malty with a bit of bready yeast in there too. Flavor is a bit tart, but at the same time dried fruit, caramel and molasses, along with a smooth yeasty, almost spice influence. Nice finish of dried fruit and brown sugar. Very good brew.