Bison Organic Barleywine

Brewed by Bison Brewing Company
Style: Barley Wine
Berkeley, California USA

Serve in Snifter

send corrections   |   shelftag   |   edit barcodes   |   update pic

An excellent barley wine. Really knocked my socks off. Aroma is sweet. Appeance is cloudy brown with a nice thick bubbly head. Mouthfeel is smooth and flavor is rich. You can taste all the grain that is added to it and the alcohol content is strong. I need to eat after having it on an empty stomach. A great brew that I will try again.

Pours a clear deep amber with a lasting off-white head. The aroma is very fruity, med-caramelly, toffee-like, with some grassy, earthy hop notes followed by a slight sherry qulaity. The body is med. with a perfect amount of CO2. Flavors are ripe with dark fruits, sweet caramel and nutty toffee. Finish oh-so balanced. I have had my share of barleywines and I don’t know what the rest of you are looking for but this is nice and very well balanced. Maybe that’s the problem for most...too well balanced? Not extreme? Just a really well-crafted beer? Is that bad?

25-Jan-11 (22-oz bottle: $3.99 at BevMo in La Jolla, CA) Cellared for 3 to 4 years, this barleywine is amazingly delicious now, offering round, integrated flavors of sweet, caramely malt, caramel candy, earth, raisins, figs, dried apricots, brown sugar, toffee, and light toast. Aromas of dried apricot, toffee, caramel, milk chocolate, pungent earth, and a touch of alcohol. Full bodied on the palate with enough light acidity to keep the otherwise very sweet beer from becoming cloying. The light acidity also helps to make up for the low level of carbonation. The hazy, dark-amber body is capped by a quarter-inch layer of off-white head that dissipates rapidly. The lovely way this beer has aged is one of the main reasons why barley wine is my favorite style of beer.

Bottle (2005): A reddish amber pour with a finger of sticky beige head. Aroma is rather potent with fruitiness, husky malts, and some florals. Citrus sweets and even a little bready. Wow, organic with a potent aroma... this might be good! The first sip reminds me of a year-old Double Bastard. Holy taste organic beer!!! Nice citrus, caramel, toffee, bready malts, florals, and even some candied sugar. Nice faded hops presence. Warming and soothing. At first, I can’t believe all the low ratings. For an organic beer damn right I am impressed! Then, as it warms, it loses a lot of the flavor complexities and gets a little husky and earthy. Shit. It is an organic beer after all. I haven’t even finished half the glass and it warms up enough to get bland. Still, for $3.19 per bomber I don’t mind having it a bit cold! I’ll put this back in the fridge every 15 minutes at that price! **Note: If you can’t tell yet I have no confidence in organic beer. Nothing personal, but less chemicals equals less taste. This brew is certainly better than most organic ales. 7/4/8/4/15

UPDATED: NOV 1, 2007 22 oz bottle from Indra at my tasting 10/12. 2005 vintage. Pour is clear orange - amber with almost no head. Only a bit of off white clinging to the edge of the glass. Aroma of sweet caramel. Taste is fairly muted sweet caramel with a very crisp hop bitter finish. Good, thoroughly well made. Thanks for bringing this one Eric.

650 ml bottle from bevmo, Medium brown with almost no head. Sweet malty and fruity aroma and taste with some interesting spice notes. Decent.

A- Pours a muddy colored brown. Reminds me of homemade cider. Thick head that reminiscent of oatmeal. S- Smells very sweet, malts, flowers. T- Tastes of coffee, oatmeal, burnt hops. Slight alcohol tinge M- Thick mouthfeel that feels just about right going down. D- Very drinkable. Sipping beer because of the high alcohol content but i could drink this all night.

2005 bottle sampled Jan 2009.

I was very pleasantly surprised by this one. Nice sweet caramels and admittedly some harsher alcohol in the aroma. Toffee and cider flavors, still quite nice hop nip in the close, thoroughly enjoyable, smooth mellowed mouthfeel.

22oz. bottle, 2005 vintage, from Bottleworks in Seattle. Sweet, doughy aroma, some toffee and toasty sweetness, light apricot and other dried fruits, faintly nutty as well. Clear light amber-red color, head is fine and slight, but leaves some nice lacing. Nose gains some mild phenols and perfume as it warms. Flavor is mostly sweet, lots of caramel and toffee but with balancing fruit and hop spice, mild bitterness and even some herbal touches towards the finish. Mild warmth on the palate, some lightly peppery alcohol here. Smooth with a low level of effervescence, some light stickiness and a full body. I liked this quite a bit better than most, it appears.

Sampled as part of a 19 beer blind barleywine tasting: Clear bronze copper with a nicely-lacing white head. Aroma of dry, earthy, slightly tart crystal malt and light grapefruit. Body starts fairly full with a mild earthy sweetness and a good hoppy bitterness toward a crisp bitter finish.