Boquébière Barleywine 2010

Formerly brewed at Boquébière
Style: Barley Wine
Sherbrooke, Canada

Serve in Snifter

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Deep brown beer with a tight tan/amber head. Sweet malty aroma. A lot of dried fruit, apricot and peach character on the nose. A lot of sweet malt and British esters. Sweet and toffeeish. The hops are restrained and seem focused on balancing the sweetness rather than providing much flavour of their own. Chewy and quite sweet. I’d like to see it with a bit of age on it because I’m actually having a tough time getting through my glass of it.

Bouteille de 500 ml achetée chez La Barik (Trois-Rivières, QC). Arôme: Odeur de caramel avec une pointe d’houblons. Apparence: La couleur est ambrée voilée. Saveur: Goût de caramel légèrement fruité et d’houblons. Durée moyenne de l’arrière goût. Palette: Le corps est moyen avec une texture légèrement vineuse. Moyenne effervescence en bouche. Arrière goût légèrement houblonné. (Rating #3583)

pours dark hazy brown with a very thick and foamy dark beige head - nice. dark fruits, a tad sweet though, roasted malts, some smoke, piney, citrusy and woodsy hops. full bodied, micro-bubbly. not really by kind of hops though.

Le liquide a une couleur brune rougeâtre. La mousse est abondante. Au nez, des effluves de petits fruits réussissent à percer les parfums modérément intenses des houblons résineux et les arômes de malt caramélisé. Le goût est bien peu différent avec un départ sur les malts sucrés et une arrivée sur des houblons aromatiques et amérisants. En bouche, le liquide a un corps moyen à fort avec une effervescence normale et une texture crémeuse. En finale, l’amertume moyennement intense qui s’installe derrière la langue rencontre un alcool tout en chaleur.

Almost a gusher upon opening, this is one very effervescent barley wine that produces a large, vigorous light beige head that sticks and lasts over the bottle-conditioned copper hue. Woodsy, resinous hop nose meet a fair amount of brown sugar malt back-up. Pretty toasty malt nature with green grape, hay and subtle buttery and sulphur notes. The complexity would be greatly enhanced with more fruity nuances. For such a heavy brew, it feels a bit slim in that regard. Otherwise, the mouthfeel is thick and the intense carbonation does not detract much from this feeling, actually making the beer seem drier than it really is and possibly more drinkable. As seems to be the trademark with boquébière, the yeast takes a lot of room here compared to archetypal barley wines. The balance is big enough that it does not disturb too much though. At the same time, the Columbus hops provide a lot of sweaty. earthy, woodsy, piney flavours that contrast nicely with the brown sugar natured malts. Finishing with a blast of alcohol elevated by the carbonic acids. A solid ale from Boquébière, but one that uses a hop varietal I don’t appreciate so much and whose malts seems a bit one-dimensional and that keeps it from being a top example, but it remains one of my favourite Boquébière, as far as their 2010 and - products are concerned.

500ml bottle from Le Gobelet. pours a murky dark orange colour with a massive creamy beige head that lasts forever, leaves nice lacing. aroma has lots of burnt caramel malts with a resinous bouquet of hops. the taste starts off with the sweetness of dark fruits and notes of caramel, ends with a powerful hops finish, along with a nice alcohol burn on the tongue. leaves a nice aftertaste for quite some time. the mouthfeel is this brew’s strongpoint. it is thick and syrupy with just the pertfect amount of carbonation. this is better than i expected.

Pours a reddish garnet with an exploding reddish foaming head. Aroma is raisin, sweet candy and barley. Taste is sweet, boozy and raisin/purple fruit. A little too acidic for my tastes.

From bottle courtesy of JoeMcPhee. Cloudy murky appearance with a thin white head. Sour scented flavour. Quite bitter, lovely flavour of fruit, spice and herbs. Rich beer alltogether. Not to bad.

Bottle with a handwritten number on the side, 1009-047. Pours with a foggy brown body and huge head, very attractive. Aroma is malts with a slight paint thinner finish. Taste is a soft mix of malts and barley with an equally soft but alcoholic finish. Quite nice, but not exceptional.

500ml bottle shared with Seb. Reddish Brown solid beige head that last. typical grape nose frontenac malt. caramel, fruity, grappy. Mouthfeel is full finish is and medium long. I guess its a matter of personal preference but that frontenac malt is too much.