Victory Old Horizontal

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

12 oz bottle, Feb 04 vintage. Pours a slightly cloudy tawny color with a nice creamy and thick 1/2 inch head. Resiny hop arome with accents of toffee, caramel, and some alcohol. Deep toffee flavor, well balanced with significant hop bitterness. Alcohol makes itself know but not overpowering in any way. I get alot of iced tea flavor in the long bitter finish. Thick and chewy mouthfeel with a mouth coating goodness. Very soft carbonation. This is a really good American Style Barleywine. Nicely balanced, hops really cut thru the huge malt bill that could easily have become overly sweet. A personal favorite of mine.

Pours a hazy orangey-red with very little head. Aroma of floral honey, caramel-malt and pine. Flavour starts in nice and sweet, with dark honey and mild citrus notes in the round middle, and a medicinal tang of hops to finish. A potent brew for a cold winter night.

Dark brown colour with hazyness....just like a great barley wine. Great sweet smell with hints of banana, and other fruits. Also a slight hoppyness in the smell arises. Full-bodied beer with a great malty flavour. A sweet, complex and full-bodied taste leads to a great beer! More full-bodied and complex than Anchor's Old Foghorn and a great overall beer!

12oz bottle, bottled November 2003. Pours a hazy, orangish-brown appearance; light tan head with great lacing. Chewy caramel, orange, and wet malts in the aroma. Full mouthfeel, showing wet malts, caramel, tropical fruits, and citrus hops; well-carbonated (even after 3+ years), with light caramel from the oxidation; far more drinkable with some age behind it. Viscous and satisfying. Long, sugary and citrus hop finish.

12oz bottle bottled Jan 11 05 - obtained in a trade with Jonathan3584. Thanks Jonathan - Pours a lovely deep ruby with a nice thick tan head that laces the side of the snifter in a grand way. Aroma is of sweet ripe cherry, caramel malts, citrus hops. Aroma is quite sweet but pleasant. Flavor is robust and malty. Crystal and caramel malts come through as well as some cherry and grapefruit hops also some spices occasionally find their way through the sweetness. On the palate this is amazing,, It feels so good in the mouth that I found myself letting it sit on my tongue for a minute at a time before swallowing. Coats the inside of the mouth and is oh so smooth and balanced. There is absolutely no sign of the 11% alcohol in this one. It is easy to see why Old Ho stays in the top 50. Great Barleywine!

Re-rate: 3-6-03 Plum raisin aroma, rich clear ruby color. Smooth as silk, slight alcohol taste. Ends sweet and dry. Down -0.2. First rating: Wow! 12-23-01 - I need to re-rate this. While I'm not going to change any numbers, I am going to say that one case of this is hardly enough for one man to have. This sucks, I'm going to have to rate about 40 beers lower because of this.

Bottled Nov 15, 2002, Sampled Oct 27, 2003
An amber color, it is a little bit hazy. Appears to be lightly carbonated, and shows a tan head when roused in the glass. The predominant aroma is of Sherry (a bit of oxidation has happened). There are sweet hoppy notes as well. The tasted is not as oxidized as the aroma would suggest. The flavor is lightly sweet, quite a malty beer at this point, though there is a hint of the hop flavor left in the beer. It is still pretty bitter in the finish, which helps to balance the sweetness well. The body of this beer is not overly thick, which for this beer is good. I can't wait to get a chance to try a fresh version of this.

pjk33 is worth a Deuce! (In a heterosexual sense, of course.) Pours nicely with a strong head, and the strength doesn’t let up. Syrupy dark fruit consisting of raisin, plumb, and black cherry swirled together and fermented with a nice touch of sweet malt. The bittering hops keeps it from being to cloying. Alcohol is more noticeable as it warms. Make sure you have nothing pressing to do for a few hours after this one. Awesome.