Barley Johns Rosies Raspberry Aged Old Ale

Brewed by Barley Johns Brew Pub
Style: Fruit Beer
New Brighton, Minnesota USA

This beer pours to a totally flat brown/ruby body. It’s perfect with everything that the standard and barrel aged Rosies ale has but this one also has Raspberries. My God this is a phenomenal beer! It was so good, I graciously walked a sample over to BBB63 at the Livery tent as he was pouring there. Did I mention this was actually better than the base?

My first rating from GTMW ’08, and for a reason. Ruddish brown color with a reddish tint, and no head to speak of. Aroma is beautiful...incredibly light and sweet for a beer of this intensity...notes of chocolate, raspberry, malty/syrupy, alcohol, and a bit of funk mixed in there. Flavor is ridiculously good, this beer set itself apart from the other big beers due to the multi-dimensionality. Up front you get a nice mixture of sweet malt, vanilla, some caramel malts, and a good dose of tart flavor to keep everything mixed nicely, and then the raspberry kicks in. The beautiful thing is that the raspberry didn’t overwhelm, but just becomes part of the beer. Palate is incredibly smooth...only word to describe it is ’silk’. Oh yeah, I’m also wondering where is that 15%...I sure can’t find it! What finally set it apart was the bourbon barrel aging...it does not dominate in any means, but rather adds an incredible third dimension of soft wood and bourbon flavors. Knowing this beer is gone for the time being makes me very, very sad...please brew this again!!!

Oooh that’s a spicy meat-a-ball.... Dk brown pour, red hughes come through, whispy white head. Big sweet fruity aroma lots of fresh raspberry a light sourness hinting on some bret too. some light caramels.. very nicely mixed scents. Full thick sticky well coated palate. Great flavor huge lightly tart but still sweet raspberry you get a lot of fruit type sugars then a warm swallow with some sticky sweet flavor I can’t quite place.. a fairly dry wood finish with a tiny hint of some char. Very very good.

5 oz. pour, on tap at the brewpub. Tasted during Barley John’s 8th Anniversary celebration on 3-16-08. Raspberry sweetness dominates the initial smell, and raspberry tartness dominates the aroma’s finish. Sweet, rich, and fruity smell features plum and candy sugar scents. The aroma is similar to that which I would expect to experience in a gourmet candy shop. Pours a deep and rich but not particularly dark brown with a light orange hue. Appears almost maroon in color. The liquid is milky and opaque with many small, slow-rising bubbles. Small amount of beige head. The taste is quite tart to the point of bitterness due to the raspberry. Alcohol noticeable. Black licorice / anise and caramel flavors. Tastes much like “regular” barrel-aged Rosie’s, but, oddly, the raspberries add a bitterness to the otherwise overwhelming sweetness. That makes this taste more like a typical barley wine and less like a sweet liqueur. The raspberry flavor is good but perhaps a bit much. Rich, bitter aftertaste. Full body. Thick, oily, and surprisingly lively in the palate. This made a great late winter warmer as I sat outside in the breeze on a sunny, mid-March, mid-30s, Minnesota afternoon. Small sips are a must for this beer. The imbiber should treat it more like a liqueur or dessert wine than a typical beer. Overall, this isn’t the world class treat that I found Barley Johns Barrel-Aged Rosie’s Ale (Batch 2) to be, but it is a fine and fascinating brew nonetheless.

Now this was a treat. Made a straight line for Barley Johns at Winterfest for this pour. Tart raspberries on the aroma of this hazy brown pour with some sugar in there as well. Lots of raspberry in the flavor plus some strong caramel flavor.

Great Taste 2008. Pours a clear reddish brown with not a suggestion of a head. The nose is light and sweet. More of a liquor than a beer in terms of nose at least. Vanilla pops out over huge raspberry. Very ethereal. The body is thinner with some sugary syrupiness to it. The flavors are in line with the nose. Light ethereal but sweet raspberry vanilla. This is much more of an aperitif than I thought a beer could ever be, lovely. So lovely I poured some of my girlfriend’s into a sample of Dark Lord (and in the process I created the greatest beer that never was).

On tap at the Great Taste of the Midwest (8/9/08): Pours a mostly still oily dark copper with a thin, wispy off-white head. Aroma of rich complex brown sugar and sweet dark fruits with some raspberry. Body starts rich, sweet, thick and complex with a touch of tart fruity balance. Quite interesting and enjoyable.

GTMW 2008 (thanks to Blake for getting me some before it was gone):

Deep brown with a very oily appearance. WOW what a nose, raspberry, marzipan, viscous syrupy old bourbon, heavy roasted malt and even some chocolate. The taste is big and fruity at first with lots of malts in the profile. The middle is a tad papery and oxidized but seems to actually work. The mouth feel is oily and lush with a VERY WARMING FINISH! Very good a quite different, MIKEY LIKEY!