Weyerbacher Insanity

Brewed by Weyerbacher Brewing Co.
Style: Barley Wine
Easton, Pennsylvania USA

12 Oz Bottle. Heavy pineapple and scotch aroma. Particular maltose alcohols, really bright tropical fruits, and just a real interesting sweet, juicy aroma, reach with perfumed floral fruit flesh quality. Nice nose. Rims in a silky, soaped washed out bronze, supported by a rather florid amber, mostly clear. Flavor gives the traditional barleywine blast, with a numbing bite on the front end, then your expected malt profile, with high gravity yeast essence, a rush of bold alcohols and some elderly settled hops, edging between pine and celery. They first come out as warmed sap, but then push into a shelf-sitting seed stock. Not a lot of depth and even the body feels a weak and thinned but the solvent alcohols. I’d like more creamy texture, more expressive flavor and a somewhat less hot breath. Not terrible, not great.

22 oz. bottle, from slob (I think, sorry, it’s been a while!). Pours a brilliant, clear, ruddy, brick color with a creamy beige head that leaves delicate lacing. Malty, fruity, mellow aroma, oak and bourbon, light brown sugar, alcohol and vanilla. Ripe summer fruit in the flavor, with brandy notes, clove and spice, floral hops lurk in the back ground along with astringent oak, butter, figs - this changes quite a bit as it warms to room temp - vanilla and fall grapes and a hint of soap. Full body with smooth and easy carbonation. Quite a treat.

12 oz bottle. Cellared about a year. Murky brown with some oaty foam around the edges. Over-ripe peaches, butterscotch and wood alcohol. Quite smooth to start; oak, watery caramel and hints of candied orange peel. Grassy bitterness creeps in with alcohol drying. Very drinkable but doesn’t have the richness i expect in a barleywine. An Ice version of this would do the trick.

12 oz bottle from a couple different traders. Thanks guys. Wow, this beer is big. Insanely big, actually. This beer truly is insanity - it’s insanely strong, and insanely hot. I had the Blithering Idiot some time ago and enjoyed it, but remember it being extremely strong as well. The bourbon barrel seems to mellow the alcohol somewhat, but it’s still a little too much for me. This is the kind of beer that will make you wake up in the morning with your car on the lawn and your underwear in a tree.

Cloudy brown beer with a lasting white head. Malty aroma with caramel, wine, oakwood with vanilla and some tannic acid. Malt dominates the flavour initially, with quite some alcohol giving it a vineous feel, and after a little while, the wood shows up, and bourbon adds to the wine. On one hand, I think cask/oak aged barley wines are overrated. On the other hand, this is damn tasty!

12 oz bottle. Pours brownish ruby with very small beige head. The aroma is oak, smoke, vanilla, quite a bit of raisin, and a few fruity and toasty notes. The flavor is caramel and vanilla sweetness, then a blast of oak and alcohol. Lots of raisin is in the middle, after which it begins to dry out a little. An oaky Scotch finish leaves slight alcohol burn in the mouth. Good stuff.

Odense tasting: Unclear orange with off white head & no lacings. Very sweet alcoholic taste & feel. Vinous. Fruity feel as well. Like "The Wolf " says: After 30 beers this still was amazing. Sticky & full mouthfeel. Nice! Would like the hops to be a bit more visible though!

Aroma is of whiskey and coconut. Dark amber with a tall white head that leaves moderate lacing. Flavor is like whiskey, caramel and sweet...unpleasant. If I wanted to drink whiskey, I would.