Blue Point Old Howling Bastard

2003 vintage on tap. Pours copper brown with a moderate tan head. Aroma has some sweetness with dates and brown sugar and some mild smokiness as well. The flavor is mild caramel followed by some fairly strong alcohol heat that pretty much obliterates anything else going on with the flavor. Lacks the maltiness and silkiness I think of in a barley wine.

Sampled at Flour City Brewers’ Fest, Rochester NY. AU15/08.

App.: Cloudy dirty amber with some yeast flakes. Aroma: Really sweet, lots of cherries and berries, grapefruit and blood oranges, bread crust, lots of caramel and brown sugar, light minerals Palate: Medium+ body and almost no carbonation. Flav.: Much like the nose: lots of sweet, gooey fruits, grapefruit and marmalade, brown sugar and molasses, some alcohol; sweet with decent bitterness and a sugary finish.

Great name and label, lackluster beer.

On tap at the brewery. Aroma very figgy with other dark fruits, and very sweet malt. Flavor still very sweet with those dark fruits and tons of residual sugar. Only had a small sample, but definitely not an easy drinker if you were to try to tackle a whole glass. Nice flavors, but so sugary...

On tap at the brewery. Pours a dull brown with a very small white head. Aroma is sweet, of brown sugar. Flavor is sweet at first, then an odd bitter, mustiness sets in. Syrupy palate, quite hard to drink. This is a very odd tasting beer...and I did not enjoy it one bit.

750 ml bottle courtesy of LilBeerDoctor.  Pours a slightly hazy orange gold with a medium sized white head.  Aroma of caramel, toffee, and citrus hops.  Taste of light candied sugar, citrus hops, caramel and light toffee.  Quite tasty.