Bos Vintage Ale

Formerly brewed at Bos Brewery and Bistro
Style: Barley Wine
Pontiac, Michigan USA

Serve in Snifter

2005 Vintage Poured a hazy deep brownish amber with mostly no head. The aroma is pretty sweet with notes of raisins, browned apples, brown sugar and aged malt. The flavor is sweet. Just how I like a barleywine. Nice fruitiness. Full bodied, thick and sticky with surprisingly no alcohol taste but very warming. Also how I like my BWs. Now let’s see what happens when I drink 12oz of 19%ABV. I can’t wait to try my ’02-’04 bottles.

Bottle @ Pre RBSG. Dirty orange pour with no head. Aroma of pungent booze, sweet malt and caramel. Flavors were hot booze, sweet candied fruits and burnt caramel. Thick body, hot and sweet all the way though.

2003 vintage. Courtesy kp. Pours a dark amber color, with no head at all. Smells of huge malt, dark fruits, bready yeast, and caramel. The alcohol was very apparent as well. The flavor is of syrupy sweet malts. Almost like rich caramel and doughy yeast combined. Perhaps a bit too sweet for me and the alcohol was pretty overwhelming. The flavor is hot the entire way through as I expected. Just a monster of a beer, but seemed to be one dimensional.

2002 bottle sampled at the Pre-RBSG ’Tosa gathering on 6/21/07 courtesy of kp: Pours a transparent viscous dark mahogany with a thin ring of bubbles and thick legs. Aroma of sweet complex dark caramel and raisins and brown sugar with some alcohol fumes. Body starts thick, rich, sugary and caramely with a touch of earthiness, some mild cardboard oxidation and a big, hot burning finish. Very complex, but hard to take down.

Courtesy KP. Pours a burnished brown. Aroma is sweet and caramel. Alcohol is very evident. No carbonation. This is perhaps the sweetest beer I have ever had. Very hot. Holy cow this is intense.

UPDATED: NOV 25, 2007 Name: Vintage Ale
Date: 06/21/2007
Mode: Bottle
Source: Tasting, Pre-RBSG
Vintage: 2002

clear dark caramel, headless, nice legs, rich sweet dark caramel malt aroma with tons of sweet fruity brandy character, creamy body turns sweet and sticky, lots of hot buttered dark caramel flavor, tons of fruity sweetness, hot alcohol is evident but not a distraction, very much a brandy sipper and much more so than the later vintages,

Aroma: 8/10; Appearance: 9/10; Flavor: 8/10; Palate: 9/10; Overall: 17/20
Rating: 4.3/5.0
Drinkability: 7/10
Score: ***+/4
-------- /> Name: Vintage Ale
Date: 11/16/2007
Mode: Bottle
Source: Tasting, Boboski
Vintage: 2003

clear dark brown with burgandy edges, headless, so thick it has legs, rich chocolate and sweet alcoholic caramel aroma with fruity essence of rum soaked raisons, huge thick body, rich hot caramel malt flavor, lots of sweet dark fruit character, vanilla sweetness,

Aroma: 8/10; Appearance: 8/10; Flavor: 8/10; Palate: 9/10; Overall: 18/20
Rating: 4.3/5.0
Drinkability: 7/10
Score: ***+/4
-------- /> Name: Vintage Ale
Date: 06/21/2007
Mode: Bottle
Source: Tasting, Pre-RBSG
Vintage: 2004

muddy dark orange, wispy tan head, sweet caramel malt aroma balanced with funky earthy hops and a touch of alcohol, big sticky body, rich dark hot bottered caramel malt flavor, lots of sticky sweetness, touch of fruit, earthy quality adds complexity rather than balance,

Aroma: 7/10; Appearance: 7/10; Flavor: 7/10; Palate: 7/10; Overall: 16/20
Rating: 3.8/5.0
Drinkability: 7/10
Score: **4
-------- /> Name: Vintage Ale
Date: 06/23/2007
Mode: Bottle
Source: Tasting
Vintage: 2005

clear dark red, wispy beige head, hot buttered caramel aroma, big sticky body, lots of hot caramel malt flavor, sticky sweetness, nice fruity character, alcohol never let’s up

Aroma: 7/10; Appearance: 7/10; Flavor: 7/10; Palate: 8/10; Overall: 16/20
Rating: 3.8/5.0
Drinkability: 5/10
Score: **4

UPDATED: NOV 24, 2007 It’s the night before the Ratebeer Summer Gathering in Minneapolis. I sit surrounded by friends in our hotel room. Many marvelous beers have already been sampled, many more remain. What’s that? This is 19% alcohol? Well, I should probably pass, I’d like to be able to taste what’s to come...Oh, it’s retired, and the brewery is closed now? Well, pour me some, then. As a matter of fact, pour me quite a bit, as this is likely the last chance I’ll ever have to taste this. I have an eerie feeling that I know exactly where this night is headed. Wait, there are two different bottles? Two different vintages? Uh oh.

2002 and 2004 vintages. The pour is still and thick, with a menacing cognac-like appearance, deep amber with an oily shenn encapsulating the body. A gentle swirl creates anvil shaped legs that slowly find their way back to where they originated from. Another swirl creates a fleeting off-white head, but it’s gone as soon as it appeared. The aroma is vinous and fills the surrounding area with caramel and sherry notes. Subtler nuances of chocolate, vanilla, dates, smoke, cognac and boysenberry are detected. Alcohol is subjugating. The flavor is much the same, much as I expected. Great warmth slowly releases caramel, sherry notes, spicy vanilla, lesser chocolate, berries and earthy fruits. The finish is warming, nearly immediately intoxicating, caramel and vinous notes dueling for the foremost character component. The mouthfeel is near the absolute for full-bodied feel, syrupy and sticky. It certainly changed the outcome of the evening. It didn’t end up shortening it, but it certainly became louder in the room after this was passed around. 2003 vintage sample months later, pretty much the same experience.

12 oz at pre-RBSG tasting (2004)

Yet another rare bottle was opened by the Atlanta guys. This one is probably the strongest beer I’ve had to date and would have stayed that way were the imperial stout not opened later in the night. I am going to go slightly against the grain here and say that I actually enjoyed this one more. Whereas the imperial stout was just plain boozy this had at least a little bit of character to it. I would be hard pressed to drink more than 4 ounces at one go - even after a small sample I could feel it begin to work its way into my system.

Aroma / Appearance - This is the first beer I’ve seen that actually has legs to it. When you swirl it around the glass it doesn’t so much slide back to the bottom so much as slime its way down the sides of the glass. The amber colored body looks more like a spirit than a beer - there’s no head or carbonation on this at all. The nose is intense and can be smelled the second the bottle gets cracked even if you are across the room. Get closer and you pick up strong vinous notes combined with caramel, chocolate and sherry. It is almost suffocatingly thick.

Flavor / Palate - It took a while to work my way through the small amount in my glass. Even so it was worth the experience. Caramel, chocolate, blackberries and blueberries constantly challenge for attention. It is surprisingly balanced for something that is 20% ABV. While I would not want to try and chug it down it doesn’t leave the throat raw either. On the other hand a 12 oz bottle is more than enough to share with a few friends unless you plan on nursing it over a few hours timespan. This is not a beer to be rushed.