Avery Samaels Oak-Aged Ale

Bottle at EBF 2008, Friday September 12
Sediment filled copper color, tan head. Oak, vanilla, alcohol, chocolate, almost overwhelming, taste-bud killing taste. Oak and vanilla scent. Smooth nice mouthfeel, medium high bitterness. Wonderful stuff!

This is probably the richest barley wine I’ve tried. It is extremely sweet and fruity, which helps hide the ABV but is still over the top. Interesting to taste but glad I had not picked up a full 12 oz bottle (heavens forbid it is ever sold in a bomber).

Bottle. 2008 vintage. Clear, light amber pour. No head. Somewhat faint, sweet aroma with some oakiness. Flavor was very oaky, sugary sweet and alcohol in the finish.

Hazy, pale amber with a small white head. Woody and fruity tones. Alcohol sweetness, malt and fruit. Full body with anice, bittersweet finish.

batch #3 very dark ruby pour, small off white head, and lots of floaters.The aroma of LOADED with caramel malt, huge notes of oak, and lots of vanilla. This is the perfect example of a beer that realy benefits from the oak, and really brings out the natural vanilla that oak adds. Now for the flavour.........WHOA this is a HUGE beer. This is the definition of extreme beer. Right off the bat you get SMACKED in the face with booze! A huge warm boozy note warms my mouth and throat. After the initial shock, there are some really nice notes of oak, and vanilla finished with some great caramel malt. This is a sipper, and i think will be tough to finish the whole bottle. This beer was bottled in April of 07, but it could still easily benefit from some age. THIS IS EXTREME BEER.

Aroma was boozy caramel with a bit of oak. Nearly opaque orange-amber appearance. Flavor is strong strong strong on malt, very sweet. Body is thick, mouthfeel is syrupy. Overall a great powerful, dessert beer.

An amber beer with a thin orange head. The aroma is sweet with very strong notes of caramel, but also lesser notes of alcohol and cardamom. The flavor is very sweet and quite strong with a good hop presence as well as strong notes of both cardamom and cinnamon and a huge alcohol warming, leading to a dry spiced and alcohol end. The mouth feel is thick like drinking syrup. One sip of this actually drove my gf crazy, and gag, and thats hard to do.

Aroma was overwhelming of oak with almost a bourbon scent. This was too strong for me. Color was a nice medium red color with a white creamy head. The taste was too hot and syrupy. Would have preferred it be alittle drier and with less fusil alcohol. Generally not one of my preferred barleywines as it has too much port and hot alcohol influence.