Victory Old Horizontal

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

This is exactly how I like a barleywine to be. Not sweet enough to be cloying and not so much alchohol that you can blow fireballs after taking a sip. The pour in this one is is dark and hazy with a little bit of head. Very rich with a full mouthfeel that is sweet like candy, but balanced out by the fruit flavors making it just right.

Big thanks to Springslicker for this trade. Pours a cloudy brownish copper, with a tint of orange. No head to speak of. Fantastic aroma. Caramel and toffee, with notes of citrus and nuts. Oily, viscous mouthcoating palate - very substantial. The flavor starts mildy sweet - malty and thick. It quickly veers into hop flavors - woodsy, grapefruit, dusty, and earthy. Finishes surprisingly crisp for how "fat" it feels. Fine beer.

12oz. Bottle and Draught at Brewery and elsewhere: Aroma of hops, pine, malts, light citrus, resin, and toasted caramel. Poured very deep amber/copper in color with a large, creamy, foamy, dense, tan head that lasted throughout. Cloudy. Sparkling. Full of tiny, small, medium, and large-sized particles throughout. Excellent lacing. Flavor is lightly sweet and heavily bitter. Tastes of hops, pine, malts, resin, and a hint of tobacco. Medium to full body. Tingly, then slightly dry texture. Average to lively carbonation. Lightly sweet, heavily bitter, hop, pine, and malt finish. 10.5%ABV is totally hidden throughout. Brest drunk fresh and hoppy!

I'm beginning to think that Victory beers are like distillations, concentrations and partial reconstitutions of styles. They take a beer concept ("barleywine" or "IPA") and reduce it to basic components, and then, like a can of frozen concentrated orange juice, they only add two of the three cans of water that the label calls for when reconstituting it. So you end up getting extra-strength flavor. The Old Horizontal is the same effect--it is a nice rendition of the barleywine, classic barleywine flavors, through and through. Not extraordinarily sticky, and a decent enough palate (keeps enough carbonation despite hints that it might fail on this dimension). I didn't get much head, but this is 11% afterall. It is unabashedly barleywine, a good dose of alcohol in the flavor, solid hop presence, a bit of bitterness, but good balance. Good beer.

Bottled 12/11/05 Nose is of caramel, with malts, and dark fruit note. Hazy, amber-red with a small off-white head; flavor is of caramel, not too sweet with some hoppy bitterness, and a little of the 11% (as per the label) alcohol leaving a nice alcohol finish with an oaky tone along with the alcohol.

[edit - this beer’s quality has suffered a great deal in recent years - hold on to those older bottles as long as you can] A deep, ruby red color and slight lacing make this look like any old barleywine.....but it most certainly is not! The aroma is mildy alcoholic, but mostly dominated by what I can only describe as ’candied fruit,’ if that makes sense. There is a subtle hop and alcohol presence in the flavor which is enjoyable on these long winter nights (but the alcohol is very well masked). The most dominant aspects of the flavor include a heavy malty sweetness, and a deluge of fruit flavors (black cherries, grapes, raisins, and possibly strawberries), which combine to make this my new favorite barleywine. The fruit and sweetness stick around in the finish for an astounding length of time after you swallow (if your don’t brush your teeth, the flavor could probably stick with you for weeks). Storm King is my favorite Victory beer, but I think this brew will make me call that title into question.

Thanks to Papsoe. Bottle. Dark amber brown colour with a little head. Aroma of caramel, sweetness and some flower too. Flavour of burned caramel, hops and ends up with a warm feeling from the alcohol.

The aroma is hoppy with pineapple, grain husks, caramel, and yeast. The appearance is deep amber with a large head. The flavor is like the aroma with an emphasis on hops but there is a sweet balance. The palate is typical for the style but could use a bit more substance. Overall this is a good beer but just seems less than impressive.