UPDATED: DEC 30, 2023 Bottle from Noble Green Wines, Hampton. Clear chestnut brown in colour, with a small cream head. Aromas are in the sweet side - candied sweets, caramel, honey. Smooth and spicy flavours with a long dry finish.

UPDATED: NOV 29, 2023 Bottle @ Broadway Dive Bar, Manhattan (Mar 2023). Pours clear reddish brown with a large foamy beige head, caramel malt, honey, cloves aroma, low carbonation, initially sweet medium bitter caramel malt taste with nutmeg, faint cloves, thin body, long medium bitter finish. Smooth and spicy, a great winter warmer.

UPDATED: FEB 23, 2023 Feb 2023. 500ml dark bottle, filtered, from Middle Farm. It's been twenty years since I last had this, and the bottle size (and price) has gone up since 2003. I like it considerably more than I did twenty years ago. This is a typically characterful Harvey's beer, with a lot more going on than is usual in a barley wine. It's got the rounded barley sugar and toffee flavours for sure, but also a curious hop blend that wraps around the mouth and tickles and excites the senses. Harvey's beers can be a little idiosyncratic, and this one is for sure. Wonderfully scintillating, intoxicating, and fascinating. A great drink. [4.8] Feb, 2003 I’ve now returned to this tasty brew with a new bottle. The first impact is impressive, but on this revisit, and with a chance to drink a whole glass, some faults made themselves known. The finish is short and soapy, the alcohol wanders about on its own like a naughty imp sometimes slapping you in the face, and nothing really lasts or develops. All the flavours are there, but they are kind of rushed or abbreviated. Some points knocked off. [3.1] Sept, 2002: Bottle. Very yummy - I love these winter warmers: liquid Christmas cakes full of malt and fruit and marzipan. Unfortunately I broke the glass after only one mouthful, the beer spraying over the floor along with shards of glass. Chrissie was upset about the glass - I was upset about the beer! [3.6]

UPDATED: JAN 1, 2022 Bottle pour at Tørst. Pours rubescent brown. Toffee, biscuit, caramel, cinnamon, nutmeg, little boozy. Medium body. Good.

UPDATED: SEP 4, 2021 9.3oz bottle. I don't really think of this as a Barleywine as much as a Winter Warmer. Malty, pleasant amber vanilla notes, fleshed out by the oats. Faint hop balance. Great balance and drinkability overall, a blast from the past in that regard. Any warmth from the alcohol is perfectly balanced in. Smooth, sweet finish. Great beer. A classic in my opinion.

UPDATED: FEB 12, 2021 Old rating from 31-03-16 - A Xmas gift from a friend who went to Lewis for work. 275ml bottle. Pours a dark reddish colour with a very small beige head. Aromas of sweet malt, toffee & caramel. Taste is much as aroma along with biscuit, and mild alcohol. The finish has a sweet caramel bitterness. Overall a very good winter ale.

UPDATED: DEC 23, 2022 Dark amber in color with a small head. Aroma is fruitcake, spice and winter fruits. Taste is fruitcake and hops.

UPDATED: DEC 10, 2020 275ml bottle from Cobbett’s, Dorking. Pours clear deep reddish amber with little head. Aroma of malt and toffee with dried fruit. Sweet vinous toffee taste. Sweet finish. A nice barley wine.

UPDATED: APR 14, 2020 Bottle from Harveys brewery shop. Pours a clear mahogany colour with hardly any head. Soft carbonation. Faint aromas of dry dark fruit, fruit cake, caramel and tobacco and leather. Taste is much more pronounced with more dry dark fruit, fruit cake, tobacco, caramel, treacle, cherries, orange peel, tea leaves, wood, sherry, spices, nuts and an earthy hoppy bitterness on the finish. Full bodied with an oily sticky mouthfeel. Quite complex and well balanced. A beer to sip and savour in the winter months. Good.

UPDATED: DEC 8, 2019 AR: Malz, Dörrobst, brauner Zucker, Holz AP: trübes rotbraun/kastanie TA: Malz, chemisch, nasser Hund, brauner Zucker,