Anacortes Old Sebastes Barleywine

Brewed by Rockfish Grill & Anacortes Brewery
Style: Barley Wine
Anacortes, Washington USA

Serve in Snifter

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From tap Brouwers. Pours clear and golden deep amber with a small tan to off whoite head. Aroma is dark malty, roasted, caramelish and light alcohol. Sweet caramelish, mild fruity, dark caramelish and overripe fruity. Bitter, roasted malty and breadish into the finish.

On tap at brouwers. Ruby red dark pour. Sweet fig and brown sugar. Taste is sweet and hoppy with some burnt toasted malts.

Brouwers Hard Liver Pours deep ruby with lots of head, good retention, and a nice lacing. Smell is dark red fruit, bit of booze, sweet, something extra I can’t quite detect. Very juicy. Taste is alcoholic raspberry. Alcohol shows up on the end, but it’s pretty smooth. Full bodied. Very good.

On tap for Hard Liver ’12, pours a clear dark mahogany / maroon with a small tan head. Aroma of dark fruits, hazelnuts, caramel malts, balanced well. Flavour of a beautiful mix of dark fruits, hazelnuts, toffee, toasted nuts and some subtle liqueur. Full-bodied with a perfect amount of sweetness. Excellent.

Snifter @ Rock Fish. Deep caramel color and aroma. Incredibly sweet. Probably in the "twilight" years of its life. Not much carbonation to speak of. Decent barleywine but slightly too sweet for me.

My Bottom Line:
Hazelnuts, caramel and cherry liqueur touches are spread onto lengthy peppery hop resins in this complex, plump Barley Wine.

Further Personal Perceptions:
-A veil of foam tops the cloudy maroon (on the ’09) and the shiny crimson (on the ’10).
-The body was full and warming, perhaps sweeter that your middle-of-the-road Barley Wine.
-Oranges appear once in a while.
-The ’10 was not as well developed as the ’09, but showed a lot of promise.
-This rating is for the ’09 vintage, sipped on in late February ’11.

On tap at Beveridge Place Pub.

on tap at brouwer’s for hard liver 2010. smooth with dark sugar tastes and a vanilla undertone

UPDATED: JAN 28, 2012 On tap at Hard Liver 2010. Dark ruby pour with a tiny ring of bubbles. Now *theres* the balance Ive been looking for all day! Fruit and caramel malts are well balanced in the aroma against the alcohol and hop content. Finally, a barleywine that covers its alcohol despite being fresh. Still has a bitter aftertaste, and remains pretty clean, but theres a robustness here that counters the ABV really well. Tasty! Re-rate: A year later, this has mellowed beautifully, is absolutely delicious, and deserving of a few more points.

Date: September 05, 2009
Mode: Draft
Source: Brewpub
Appearance: clear dark amber, frothy beige head, drippy lace
Aroma: sweet and fruity aroma, dark caramel sweetness, touch of ripe fruits, light earthyness
Body: big sticky body
Flavor: rich fruity flavor, lots of caramel sweetness, rich ripe fruits, light balancing earthyness, just a hint of peppery alcohol
Aroma: 7/10; Appearance: 7/10; Flavor: 8/10; Palate: 8/10; Overall: 17/20
Rating: 4/5.0
Drinkability: 7/10
Score: ***+ /4

Sweet barley, rice, red licorice aroma. Brown in color. Barley in the flavor and besides that it is just sweet and syrupy. The only beer I had that was not watery.