Victory Old Horizontal

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

Frankly, I have tired of being a ratings whore...I’m tired of drinking middle of the road drek only because I need the rating to stay ahead of the notoriously devious Frankenkitty in our quest for 1000! So I went deep into my cellar and opened a 1 year old bottle of Old Horizontal, let it warm slightly, and sipped for an hour of pure unadulterated pleasure... Syrupy texture, somewhat cloying and vinous...intensely sweet with dried fruits, caramel, toffee, weird spices, and roasted malt. Enormous grapefruit and pine resin hoppiness lingering in the finish...along with an ever so welcome alcohol signature, most notable in the peppery throat warming...bringing with it a welcome sense of contentment, inner peace, and unfeigned forgiveness...oh, and by the way...Frankenkitty, thou Spawn of Cthulhu, you shall never catch me...

Bottle Jan. 11 2005. Beautiful clear ruby red pour. Nice cream colored head, that mostly diminishes. Lacing maintains. Hoppy apple aroma with pineapple and pine wafts. Complex flavors with raising, rum, and cinnamon. Like a fine bourbon, but with more angles. The alcohol is well hidden. Palate is crisp and bright with a soft cherry aftertaste. Top Quality!

Powerful aroma, aromatic oily hops combined with plum and caramel malts. Lots of hops on the palate spicy, peppery and tingling at first, citric grapefruit bitterness in the finish. Cookie dough malts, toffee, caramel and raisin and plum fruitiness provide some nice backbone and exceprional balance. Port-like in the aftertaste. Pretty easy drinking.

Pours a hazy hazy amber, very light white head. Very nice belnd of hops and matls in the smell, with a little skunky fruit as well. Nice spice on the taste! Pretty bitter, with notes of grapefruit and nuts. Pretty neat combo actually. Alcohol is quite present, maybe they could have masked it a little better but it is still quite good. maybe a tad overrated.

**New** Wow! Now that I have a half hearted appreciation for this style I realize that this is AWESOME! Not over the top like a lot of American barley wine. The big thing here (small as it may seem for you Europeans) is the carbonation. Great carbonation, tastes fresh and does not feel like you are drinking old motor oil. Nice sweet malty aroma with a warming alcohol burn but not getting too Vicks Vapo-Rubby with it. The most drinkable barley wine to date for me. Old rating: A-6 A-3 F-6 P-3 OI-15 Total Score-3.3 Not a bad barley wine from one of my ol’ faithfuls, Victory. This was a nice take on the genre with a bitterness to it that I haven’t noticed in barley wines before. I don’t drink these often but I would have this one again. Pour was a rich amber with a perfect 1 finger head. The aroma was fruity and the taste was caramelly with malt and alcohol aftertaste. You can feel this one going down. Good job.

Pours a dark ruby with a light colored head that laced very well. Musty fruity smell with pineapple and laced dark fruits nose. Some caramel in the nose as well. Floral hops flavor confuses the palate with other flavors of berries and caramel from the malt. Quite the delicious barley wine not overly assertive but perfectly balanced and quite drinkable as well. Ranked 2nd out of five in my blind barley wine tasting.

Bottle thanks to nqualls. Dated Nov 29 12. Dark brown-orange, some floaties, with a thin beige head. Aroma is prunes, brown sugar, dark fruits, light alcohol heat, raisins. Taste is more brown sugar, raisins, rum, alcohol warmth

Pour is a murkey brown with a small tan head. Aroma is strong caramel matls with a nice earthy hop backbone. Flavor is earthy and fruity with lots of peat-smoke bitterness. Alcohol is there but not a problem. Prob one of the best barleywine’s i have ever had. Yes it is as good as the hype.