Weyerbacher Insanity

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

Bottle shared by jerc. Red/amber colour with a frothy and creamy tan head. Fresh, oaky, woody, boozy alcohol aroma. Oaky, wood, citrus, caramel, bourbon, and other alcohol falvours. Full bodied, syrupy. Something off-putting about this one, and I enjoyed the barrel treatment in Heresy.

Bottle sampled with Stegosaurus. Pours a murky amber color with an off-white head. Aroma of alcohol, sweet malts, and yeast. Flavor is alcohol, sweet, didn’t mask the alcohol well enough for me.

A hazy orange beer with a thin beige head. The aroma is quite faint, but what is there is of malt and caramel. The flavor is better, with primary notes of caramel, but also light notes of alcohol and vanilla (from the oak). The end is very dry and quite woody, but also with notes of cowberries.

Botte. Orangey amber body with a small white head. Aroma of alcohol, and light caramel malt. Pretty boozey flavour, light malt character, healthy dose of oak astringency, the alcohol overwhelms the subtler flavours. Average to medum palate. This brewery really needs to stop ruining their beers by tossing them in barrels. I quite like the Blithering Idiot on its own.

Bottle. Cloudy amber coloured with an off white head. Aroma of hops, caramel, vanilla and dried fruits. Flavour of pine needles, vanilla, wood and hops.

One of the more enjoyable barleywines consumed on the night of Rob’s fantastic barleywine tasting alongside its non-bourbon twin. A nice way to break the Lenten fast. Malty toffee goodness with plenty of candy sugar notes. Not overwhelming on the bourbon, nicely done. Plenty of vanilla and orange and a touch of hops on the finish. Nice.

Shared with tupalev courtesy of Thaichile. Pours a clear dark ruby-copper with lots of floaties and a large lasting off-white head. Odd aroma of sweet candy with caramel, spices, hops and bourbon. Flavour is big time bourbon and then it mellows and you wind up with a pleasant enough flavour of caramel malt, vanilla, brown sugar, fruit and alcohol. I’m not a huge bourbon fan but for a bourbon beer this is pretty good, but given the choice I’d take the Blithering Idiot over this.

Bottle, shared with and courtesy of blankboy. Hmm, description here says aged in bourbon cask, which makes a lot more sense (see the rest of my rating); I swear the bottle said oak. Anyway, dark rusty copper, decent white head, tons of fine sand grain like floaties. Odd aroma - soap, candy, hops, butterscotch, bourbon dominates as it sits. Interesting. More bourbon than any oak at first - mellow alcohol taste - tons of butterscotch. Short finish. Dry. Bourbon dominates as it warms and it becomes completely one dimensional - like so many other bourbon barrel beers I have had. Which is too bad, I like how it was in the background at first, where it should be. Decent sipper.