Walnut Brewery Old Thumper Barleywine

On tap: Pours a transparent dark copper amber with a thin, wispy-lacing off-white head. Aroma of sweet sugary caramel malt with some light fruity esters. Starts with good fullness and sweet caramel and toffee notes with some mild peppery bittering hops before a slightly warming finish. An English-style barleywine that could use a little more balance and aging, but is still pretty good.

sampled on tap at the 5th Boulder Strong Ale Fest. nose was malty, nuts, and stale cereal. flavor was pretty stale, with sweet malts and nuts. not good at all.

Murky caramel purple colored. Doesn’t smell like much of anything... taste like a cheap BW, meant to not upset the palate of the tourists. Candy sugar, frothy thin yeast presence, light buttered bread and cherry nose... artificially swet. Some corn and furl show up in the finish... not cool.

(gabf 2003) Aroma of plums and cherries. Very complex flavors in this barleywine. Flavors of fruit, molasses syrup and spices. The flavors have combined very nicely.

Brightish-brown color with a frothy beige head. Must've had a bad batch, as its flavor/aroma profiles were tainted with carrots, vegetables, bad herbs and bad cabbage. Definitely wasn't right. Will attempt to try again sometime.

Head is initially small, creamy, white, fully diminishing. Body is light orange-brown. Aroma is lightly malty (cookie), lightly hoppy (pine, citrus - grapefruit), with light notes of banana and toffee. Flavor is moderately sweet, lightly acidic, lightly bitter. Finish is lightly acidic, lightly bitter. Medium body, creamy texture, lively carbonation, moderate alcohol.