Woodfordes Headcracker

Brewed by Woodfordes
Style: Barley Wine
Norwich, England

Shared a trial of this one with Dr. David Crease, the head brewer, straight from a collapsible cask in the QC dept. of the Woodforde’s brewery. Batch was about two months old and at this stage still falling bright. Assured it is brewed with 100% Maris Otter malt and Goldings hops.
Onto the beer. Medium gold and syrupy looking in the glass. No carbonation, no head. A quick swirl revealed some tight sweet malts, tangy, spicy citrus fruits, light vinous notes and a tickle of alcohol. Syrupy in the mouth, feint echo of residual carbonation upfront and its all smooth and treacly from there on in. Simple flavour mix of rounded, biscuity-sweet, toasted malts and assertive well, defined hops that add a floral and spicy, vine-like bitterness to the back end. Alcohol is evident, in sync with the malt and hop profile whilst the swallow dries out slightly and has a nice citric tang to it. This was a lovely strong ale. Tight, well balanced and an excellent example of good old, simple ’malt and hops’. Would have loved to have asked Dave for a few bottles to fly on home with me. Next time maybe.

Plenty of peach, orange, tangerine fruitiness that evokes a sugary fruit soda pop (Sunny D, Five Alive etc). Clear, deep golden orange body is topped by a shy white head that recedes to a lasting partial cover. Tangy citrus flavour with some caramel and tannins and an oddly vegetal and herbal hop flavour and fairly assertive bitterness. Sweetness borders on cloying though there is that tangy twang that keeps it from overpowering. Body is quite light to begin with and initially strong carbonation doesn’t last very well leaving the glass somewhat flat and watery/syrupy/slick. Tulip glass. Allowed to warm from fridge temperature. Bottle (Bièropholie, May-06).

Strangely, my bottle differed a lot from various others from fellow Quebec importers. It did pour a light, cloudy gold/orange, raising a considerable white head that receded to a fair cover. In the nose, emanations of brett speak of bacterias going wild, complementing the base fruity malts (orange, apricot, candied pear) with wilder hay-like, exotic pineapple, papaya and wild flowers. Rather bright accented flavors, pointy carbonation, initially biting, but cooling down. Almost excessively dry in mouth, rather thick for such an attenuated final product. Have not noticed any alcohol. Juicy floral and earthy hops brought forth rosewater and lilac undertones. Something went wrong, but it managed to remain mostly pleasant, particularly in the nose.

Cask gravity at Bowl Inn, Charing, BF 2006. Amber colour with thinning off white head. Jellied fruit aroma. Good malt. Some hop. Juicy malt in mouth. Impressively not sickly or overly sweet. Very drinkable. I would say more a very strong bitter than a barley wine. Really quite dry on finish after sweetish mouthfeel. But it really isn’t half bad. Wouldn’t want the other half of this pint though if I wanted to cycle home safely.

Robe orangée surmontée d’une mousse blanche mince qui s’estompe. Arômes d’agrumes et de malt caramel. Saveurs d’oranges, de pommes, de houblon floral et de malt caramel. Très ronde, mais barley wine???

Hazy orange amber ale with a thin white head. A herbal hops in aroma with coniferous notes. In mouth, a fresh alcohol menthol like quality, hops, and citrusy notes. Rich and smooth. However, not true to the barley wine style. Still, a good beer. Bieropholie imports 2006.

Aroma:tangerine orange juice aroma,light caramel... Appearance:Hazy gold-orange with chunk of yeast.No head... Flavor:Light orange juice flavor,watery.... Defenetly all beer from this brewery are not very good and hope we import better beer next time....

Any first impressions?
-Had to work hard to get some decent foam atop the hazy, golden orange.
-Ripe peach skin, passionfruit, honeymelon, and cantaloup sweetness protrudes from the glass.
-This hugely malty body gets almost oily at times.
-The candied fruit platter announced by the aroma is effectively carried by the curvaceous mouthfeel.

What if you dig deeper?
-The finish is very smooth and doesn’t carry all the sweetness tasted, thankfully?
-Some drying wooden, leafy, even floral Goldings hoppiness hangs out with a dash of alcohol, aiming at balance.
-Alcohol shows through the sweetnes in the aroma after a while, akin to ice cider.
-The yeast pour doesn’t affect the beer too much.
-All in all, this is hefty pint of malt which remains well crafted all the way through.

Bottle; best before June ’06.