Victory Old Horizontal

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

A thick, creamy beige head sits atop a clear, burgundy body. Amazing bready aroma, with apple, nutty, spicy, and incredibly sweet brandy notes. Intensely bitter taste, balanced out by strong alcohol heat and sweet, sticky malts. Plums, dates, cherries, nuts, flowers, figs, berries, caramel, chocolate and more blend together wonderfully. A benchmark Barleywine for me. Ages like a beast, too.

Brown, slightly hazy pour, small and quickly receding head; aroma gives hints of soft alcohols and rich malt (dark fruit) complexities; each stylistic component of barley wine is cleanly and independently expressed as a harmonious symphony of olfactory and taste sensations, finally succeeding a slightly hop-induced bitter finish with warming alcohols.

One of my favorites. Sweet and malty, with a fruity hops finish. This beer has a long flavor run, is very thick and creamy, and hides its alcohol well.

I had been holding on to this bottle for quite some time and finally decided to break it out for my first local tasting. Poured a deep amber color consisting of a small white head. Sweet toffee, fruity, malt aroma with a mild floral hop character in the nose. Much hoppier than I expected to the point where it vetoed the sweetness. Mild malt notes and some almond come through as it warmed. Bitter resin finish. Fine, fine brew.

12 oz. bottle; beautiful reddish-brown body with off-white head. Sweet aromas of fig, plum, malts, and barley. As others have said, very well-balanced and solid body. Slightly carbonated with caramel flavors at first, then more of the aroma flavors come along with a distinct hop taste near the finish. Finishes with a floral hop aftertaste. Hides the 11% ABV very well.

2008 bottle. Dark brown color, nose of figs and sherry. Flavor is a little sweet, a lto malty, but with a hoppier finish than some barleywines. Loved the balance there. Outstanding beer from an outstanding brewer.

2005 bottle at kelly’s 2008 barleywine festival. pours a clear brown amber with a big off white head. nose is strong hops with piney and floral notes, great bready and caramelly malt, with a slight hint of alcohol, which plays into the flavor very well. floral and citrus bubblegummy hops, with an assertive caramel malt, some cherry notes. thick, coating, chewy mouthfeel, medium to full body, light bitterness, pleasant sweetness, lots of carbonation. this was my pick of the entire festival. with all those hops, it almost borders on a double ipa, but the caramel brings it back, and it’s just soooo good. edit: i’m now sitting at home, enjoying a year-old old hor. there is an amazing brown sugar and caramel note, along with some nice spicy, cotton candy, and apricot hop/malt tangles. this is just amazing. as many times as i’ve had this, and said wow each time, this is just my favorite barelywine. i’ve had a lot of them, but this is my favorite. wonderful.

2007 vintage. tap @ Victory. dark ruby/brown with lacing. nose of cologne, port, brown sugar, liquorice, fig, and prune. taste is loads of malt, dark fruit, candi sugar and caramel. smoky. hops sneak in and then assert themselves. woody, dry finish. smooth, a bit oily. warm and seductive. one of the finest beers on earth!