Viking Brewing Berserk Barleywine

Brewed by Viking Brewing Company
Style: Barley Wine
Dallas, Wisconsin USA

Pours smooth and looks like liquid tootsie rools. More rummy fruits and ifgs make up the nose, very strong alcohol on hte nose, enought to singe nosehairs. The flavour is paintthinner hot, with some roast chocolate and soy sauce.

Bottle at 2006 Chromefest: Poured brown with a smallish tan head. Caramel and brown sugar aroma and big caramel flavor, lightly burnt, with moderate sweetness. Light meaty/soy flavor in the finish. Decent.

Bottle. Big ’ol barleywine nose with lots of molasses and sugar. Taste-amazingly thin for a barleywine. Syrup, brown sugar, toasted bagels, malt syrup (LME), CO2. A very good beer for VBC.

Rich dark color, hazy bottom. A bit thin for a palate, but slippery and low in carbonation. Soy sauce, caramel, and sweet.

Multi-brown. No head. Cocoa powder, figs, roasty caramel malt, subtle piney hops. Medium/full, smooth body. Incomplete.

Thanks badgerben. Pours a murky brown, thin pretty much no head. This was a different barleywine it wasn’t so fruity or hoppy, it had that dark fruit touch to it but I got more chocolate, brown sugar sweetness then the fruits and light hops hit. I had no idea it was 12% it did kinda overide the other flavors. All in all I did say to myself this was the best barleywine I’ve had in a style I generally don’t like that much.

12 oz bottle courtesy of The_Enemy. Pours to a hazy, deep caramel color, with a slight tan head that fades to nothing, and a soft carbonation. The nose on this beer is very malty, with aromas of sweet malt, caramel, toffee, hints of cocoa, and some peppery alcohol. The palate is slighly slick and oily on the tongue, with good flavors of caramel, toffee, sweet malt, light flavors of cocoa, and estery flavors of prune. This beer finishes with more good sweet malt and caramel up front, then ends with a waming, peppery, alcohol bite that lingers. At 12% abv, this is a stong beer, to sip and savor, and makes for a fantastic after dinner drink, or night cap. Another impressive beer from Viking Brewing, a brewery that I have quickly become a big fan of.

4/18/06 Re-rate: Bottle. It may seem odd that I am re-rating this brew only one day after the original, but the 4/17 rating was actually done several months ago. My more recent rating was more favorable, which speaks to Viking’s inconsistency. Lovely, fruity, hoppy, rich aroma...didn’t get that the 1st time around. Very promising. Deep, dark, ruby red with some hazyness. No visible carbonation, but it’s hard to see through the darkness. Light tan head. Mostly diminishing head with some lace. Really nice color. This brew required a hard pour to get any head going. I’ve heard Viking has had issues with bottle leakage. Very sweet. Seems like they threw sugar at it. Turned out pretty well, but it doesn’t adhere to the BWine style characteristics. Not bad, just not very quality. 4/17/06: Bottle. Doesn’t smell like a barley wine. Roasted malt with some allspice. Beautiful, clear, dark red. Not much lace. Some off flavors. Not a pleasant aftertaste. Decent sweetness, just not a barleywine. The folks at Viking Brewing make a great Big Swede, but they just aren’t very consistent. Has a nice flavor, but just not as a barleywine. Ar 7, Ap 5, Fl 7, Pal 3, Ov 14.