Alaskan Pilot Series: Barley Wine Ale

Brewed by Alaskan Brewing Co
Style: Barley Wine
Juneau, Alaska USA

Serve in Snifter

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UPDATED: OCT 30, 2009 Bottle 2008 vintage. Deep amber pour. The nose is pretty intense. Rich sweet nose and a bit of sweet malt and light chewy caramel. A nice toffeeish character toward the back, but also with a pretty assertive fruity hoppiness. A kiss of chocolate adds another touch of malt complexity to the brew. It’s got a lot of fruity hoppiness but it doesn’t really come across as being all that bitter. Intense mix of flavour that are still nicely balanced. Sort of a dark, toasted barleywine, but it’s pretty nice really. Tap at the 2006 Hard Liver Festival. Vintage 2004. Gorgeous amber-garnet colour, nice fine-laced dark tan head. Sticky lace as well. Aroma is fairly herbal and minty. Sweet malts, well balanced. Flavour is malty but also very fruity with cherry and blackberry esters throughout. Lingering peppery finish. 8 4 7 4 15

2003 on tap at Toronado BW-fest on 2/19/06. Poured dark amber with a small lacing head. Nice fruity aroma with a subtle hoppy nose. Good malty flavor with notes of caramel and brown sugar. Rich lingering mouth feel with a smooth warming finish.

@ Great Alaskan Barleywine Festival ’06. 2004 vintage. Ok nose fruity. Dried fruits, fig/date/raisin and whisky. Hazy orangy brown color, ok head that left a nice ring. Bittersweet flavors, like aroma with whisky and fig mainly. Medium body,thick creamy mouthfeel, bitter dryish finish. Nice barleywine, mellowing nicely by other comments about fresher vintages. Wish I had found a bottle in my travels around the metro Anchorage area.

On tap at Mountain High Pizza Pie in the little town of Talkeetna, south of Denali National Park. Hazy, dark copper with a decent head. Big fruity aroma with a touch of pineapple and apple. Very malty body with loads of caramel. Sweet, but not cloying. Velvety mouthfeel. It wasn’t as harsh as many barleywines, but it also probably has a little age on it given as this is a winter beer and it was tasted in June.

UPDATED: JUL 28, 2008 [At GABF 2004, Vintage 2003] A hazy copper colored beer with a lasting orange head. The aroma is sweet and very hoppy. The flavor sweet malty with distinct notes of hops - as well as notes of oranges slices dipped in sugar. The alcohol is very well hidden - it can only be felt on the tongue.

UPDATED: APR 13, 2005 Hard Liver 2005
2004 vintage
Toasted grains, big buttery bread and toast flavors and aromas everywhere. Light carbonation, sweet and thick with strong brown sugar and maple, with some hefty bread crust and moderate hop bitterness, but overall not too sweet, just a semi-caustic brown sugar and molassess sweetness. An interesting BW that made a lot of heads turn at the festival, but not one of my top picks.

my first beer at the Toronado during the waning days of the barleywine fest. the beer was a brown tinted ruby with a very strong peaty hop aroma, subdued bitterness throughout dominated more by a candy coating mouthfeel with strong earthy tones and overall a highly quaffable big beer

UPDATED: FEB 1, 2009 Bottle (2008 edition). Head is initially small, frothy/creamy, light brown, mostly diminishing. Body is dark amber. Aroma is moderately malty (caramel, cookie), moderately to heavily hoppy (resin), with notes of sugar and alcohol. Flavor is heavily sweet, lightly to moderately acidic, lightly to moderately bitter. Finish is moderately sweet, lightly to moderately acidic, moderately bitter. Full body, syrupy/creamy texture, soft carbonation, moderately alcoholic. A hop bomb in the nose (with a bag of sugar thrown in), and a sugar bomb in the mouth. Ample bitterness to keep it from being a wreck, though. Basically big and dumb, like Steinbeck’s Lennie Small. Not for me, but it’s ok.

2/19/05. On tap at Toronado Barleywine Festival ’04 in San Francisco, CA 2/19/05. 2003 Vintage. Very hazy caramel brown. Muddy and totally opaque. Slight head without much lacing but good color. Very drinkable with nicely balanced flavor-- bitter golden glow, very elegant and easy. Aroma fits and sets up the beer adequately-- mouth-wateringly yummy with light caramel and a hoppy green pine tease. Succulent medium body with nice carbonation on the mouthfeel-- soft and holding up perfectly to the rest of it. A very lovely, almost light barleywine. Easy on the palate without sacrificing much complexity.

02.19.05 Red-brown-amethyst pour with creamy foam. Hugely balanced, this is a barleywine that all others may aspire to be. Great PNW hop profile is offset by plenty of biscuity, sticky, earthy, figgy malts. A real highlight of the trip, I just wish they hadn’t run out so quickly.