Arcadia Cereal Killer Barleywine

Brewed by Arcadia Brewing Company
Style: Barley Wine
Battle Creek, Michigan USA

Location: 12 oz bottle from Gilly’s, 3/14/10 - Selection Sunday!

Aroma: Nose is boozy and fruity with a good amount of caramel
Appearance: Pours a hazy burnt orange-brown color with a thin head
Flavor: Flavors is relatively sweet with lots of fruity notes and a bit of earthy hops
Palate: This beer is somewhat hot and the carbonation is pretty low
Overall Impression: This is a decent Barley Wine. It has some interesting things going for it for sure, and it is solid. I personally would prefer more hop presence from the style, but that is a personal preference. Even so, this one just doesn’t quite have anything to it to make it feel special.

Bottle. A deep dark red color pour with a big lasting fluffy white head leaving lots of sticky lacing , medium carbonation . Aroma of dark caramel , rasins , molasis, spicy hops and maybe cherries. Flavor is of sweet brown shugar , caramel , molasis,spicy floral hops, dates,rasins ,wood ,light alcohaol in the tail end , nice warming effect . Full body with a thick creamy mouthfeel , medium level of bitterness long sweet finish . Quite drinkable and went down good dispite the sweetness . A very good offering from a great brewery Nice .

Bomber. 2009 vintage. Pours a deep ruby red with a small yellowish head. Nice looking BW. Aroma has full sweet maltiness, decent floral and fruit notes, with just a touch of hops. Pleasant aroma. Flavor is again with the generic heavy maltiness, lighter hops, medium-sweet overall with the same fruitiness detected in the aroma. Pretty balanced flavor. The barleywines I’ve tried sometimes have a tendency to be too heavy in one flavor I’ve noticed. This one is quite round, drinkable too because of the lower ABV. Heavy viscosity, medium carbonation, gooey finish. I really like this BW. Very smooth and friendly as far as BW’s go. This would be an easy, affordable go-to BW if bombers were distrubuted in my area. Overall, very good to excellent.

Sample at Hell with the Lid off. ’06 - Pours light gold with amber hues. Caramel nose with alcohol present. Sweet caramel flavor and bitter. Reasonably dry. ’07 - Better than ’06. More caramel with more alcohol, same bitterness, but with mild chocolate notes.

12 oz bottle pours dark murky red color with head that whisps away quickly. Aroma is raisin, plum, brown sugar. Medium mouthfeel. Flavor follows the nose, has subtle hops, caramel sweetness, and finishes with a nice dark fruit flavor. There is no noticeable booze in this and has nice layers of complexity to it. Is real nice.

Sampled during Hell With the Lid Off. Nice boozy nose. Vanilla, oak, brown sugar. Neutral fruits. Light hops, subtle but nice. Dark amber clear with thin head. Heavy watery body with light carbonation. Sweet with raisin and vanilla, oak. Has a light tang in the finish like sugar fermented. Light hoppy finish with tangy sweet after.

2007 on the label but a 2009 sticker 22 ounce bottle. Quite brown opaque with a smallish tan head. Indistinct nose (but I have a cold). Flavor is plums and prunes with tons of caramel, alcohol, vanilla, brown sugar. Very sweet but with significant dry bitterness. Very good but hard to drink at the same time. The fruit and brown sugar blend nicely but the hops give that bitterness that detracts. Still, it is quite tasty.

Pours light mahogany into a snifter. Tan head recedes to skim surface. Alcohol soaked pit fruit aromas. Sweet caramel upfront turning to sour fruits and slightly bitter resin in the lasting finish.