Victory Old Horizontal

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

1997 version - AKHBP, one of 3 different "vintages" available along with the 1998 and 2003: Cloudy and dirty brown hue with small off-white head and good lacing. Big vanilla, bourbon, toasted malt, light pine, and dry fruit aroma. This beer is very vinous and sticky smelling, if you what I mean. The initial taste was corn syrup sweet with a big alcohol kick upon the finish. It borders on being coy but the undertone of hops balance towards the finish saves the palate. Good fruity and smoky undertone. The mouthfeel is sticky, oily, and heavy. This is a very full-bodied beer. Very nice but almost too much for a tasting event, a sipping beer for sure.

Botttle at home ... Thank to Secret Santa 2008 and a trading buddy for the 2 bottles i got, one know one gonna age to bits :-) ... copper thin white head ... sweet vanilla toffee malt nose sweet and rich ... quite a resiny mouthfeel ... again quite rich and sweet vanilla ... soft citrus fruits with vanilla in background and light bitterness... Going nice with a Mild Brie

The Kilburn Gathering. I’m not a fan of big beers, especially barley wine - but this is so soft and gentle and so very beautiful it is difficult not to become bequiled. There is a pleasant oily hop aroma along with wood wax and pine resin. It’s a very inviting and compelling aroma. Tipping the beer into the mouth is very pleasurable - it’s thick as slow glue. Everything is so slow and beautiful. Gentle warming flavours of caramel and coconut engage, envelope, and cuddle the palate. Mmmmm. Even the reddish colour is engaging. Nice one indeed!

2002 bottle. Poured a dark golden orange. Aroma is sweet and hoppy. Citrus, caramel, brown sugar. Flavor is big on the sweet malt. Caramel, toffee, and fruity hop flavor. Plenty of hop bitterness is still present on the finish along with balanced alcohol flavor and plenty of throat warming. Full bodied, syrupy, and sticky. Had the 04 a few weeks prior. Very similiar except everything was amped up. Vintage 1998 (on 8/4/05). Old ripe fruit, malty sweet, and cola. Still has a good backing of hop bitterness and nice warming. Still great.

Picked up last 12-oz bottle from Cellar’s Wine & Spirits in St Paul, MN. From a 2006 vintage bottle, pours a dark amber brew with a cloudy off white thick head. Dissolves fast to a fine lacing. Aroma is grapefruit, caramel, brown sugar, and sour apples. Taste is sweet, apple-ish fruit, raisins and a touch of prunes. Finish is sweet and a nice bitter aftertaste.

Bottled Feb. 4, 2005. Pour was an eerie, cloudy shade of orangish-amber with a tall and creamy beige head. Looked quite nice as the head was about as tall as the liquid.. and it filled my large snifter to capacity. Extra-fine sediment suspended in there, and intricate lacing followed the liquid down. Nose picked up adult Christmas candy (move over eggnog)... deep and seductive caramel and molasses sweetness, holiday spices, citrus and darker fruits, and a wonderful floral hop presence... and albeit not explicit, you know there’s a solid dose of alcohol lurking beneath your nose. Somehow, the magnificent interplay of flavors outshined the aroma. I don’t know how it happened, but damn was this good! Sugarplums, oranges, and grapefruit in there tasted like they were personally squeezed/stomped by a magical beer elf just for me. Caramel and molasses provided a fantastic medium backbone, with just the right amount of sweetness. Noble hoppage gave the brew a perfect floral/earthy quality, and was present from first whiff through four minutes after the finish. Alcohol was there, but only to give the flavor some extra zest, to impart some throat- and belly-warming-ness, and to make me feel quite fine when I had laid this most excellent brew to rest. Get some!

an easy drink. Nice moderate use of hops and head that disipitates. Brown/amber. Unique in It didn't seem like 11%. Malt and alcohol winter warmer. Hint of orange citrus in syrup. Somewhat dry and bitter aftertaste.

Bottle (12oz). Acquired via trade with MullMan. Poured cloudy mahogany with a decent sized lasting creamy-rocky tan head. Nice aroma of oaky malt, alcohol, plenty of rich, fresh, resiny hops, pine duff, almost a hint of paint thinner. Flavour is an insistent medley of sweet nutty malt, deep resiny hops, warming boozy alcohol, citrus juice, chinese gunpowder tea (dry, bitter, herbal) - starts almost sweet, then the alcohol and hops take off and carry this to a long, bitter, fruity finish. Mouthfeel is juicy, astringent, quite full-bodied for the style. A solid barley wine, maybe could age for even greater smoothness, but right up there .. as tupalev notes, perhaps it could be a little more complex, but nevertheless I liked it a lot. So did my wife.