Bos Vintage Ale

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

Serve in Snifter

2004: I don’t know whose idea of a joke this beer is, but it isn’t very funny...pour is clear brown with no head...alcohol is just fuming out of the glass...perfumey....taste is chewy and sweet and just hot with alcohol...blech...

2004 draught at Hop Devil on 1/13/07
Large eggshell-to-light-beige colored head is mostly well-retained, leaving sticky patches of lacing and film behind as it recedes. Very hazy is the body, and a deep golden-amber color it has.
Huge esters pervade the nose, along with a big, fat wallop of caramel and rich honey-dough. Fruitiness emerges on the end; light raspberries and cherries soaked in sweet vanilla cream. Bananas and plenty of bubble gum remain sweet and lasting as well, on the finish. The alcohol, not that I believe it’s as high as stated, is well-masked under all of the residual sugar. Quite a high strength of aroma, mostly due to the heavy sweetness and fruity/bubblegummy esters.
One sip has me cringing in disgust with thoughts of giving this a .5 crossing my mind. It’s like a glass full of sugar. Heavy, wet, intensely sweet (intense caramel) malts give way to less firm adjunct sugars (not that the dextrines ever lessen) and fiery alcohol warmth. Sweet fruits of all sorts add complexity, you might say, but with this big of an ale, the yeast is invariably going to kick out a ton of esters. Raspberries, peaches, plums, strawberries, bananas, vanilla, bubblegum....It hardly seems to matter what’s here, as it’s so obnoxiously cloying and brash. Easily the most cloying/heavy beer I’ve ever had. A sluggishly thick body is somewhat lightened by a fair amount of carbonation, but again, it hardly makes much difference. Couldn’t drink more than one sip. I guess I’ll let the 2003 bottle that I have age for another 25 or so years.

Oh and don’t get me wrong, I’ve got nothing against big sippers, this beer is just plain gross. Check out my rating of Kuhnhenn Extraneous ale if you want to see my thoughts on a beer of this type done correctly.

On Tap. A good Barley Wine which may have been better if cellared for one or two more years. Too sweet and candy like for me. Finishes sticky, chewy, and thick.

On tap at HDG. Hazy dark amber color with a small off white head. Sweet, fruity aroma with tons of dark dried fruits, brown sugar, mild bourbon and vanilla. Flavor was quite sweet and somewhat cloying. Notes of dried prunes, molasses, mild smoke, light bourbon and honey. Alcohol was warming on the finish, but would never guess the % was over 12%. I could probably only drink this beer in 4oz. portions, but I did enjoy it.

UPDATED: DEC 12, 2007 Update- 2003 Vintage. Overall 3.3. Sweet vinous, wood earth plum and fruity esters. Looks woody brown but stilll and almsot no carbonation. Some grapeskin, cardboardy oxidation, soy sauce and some sherry hints with more plummy esters. Salty oxidation mouthfeel with more soy wet paper and mostly boozy- hot alcohol most of the way through. Too old and hot- 2004 must have been better and not as oxidized. 4 oz serving at HDG. 2004 vintage. 3.7 overall. Pours a bright hazy amber with a thin head to begin with, but fades to nothing. Aroma is thcikly sweet, with tons of fruit, caramel, bourbon, corn sugar, dark molasses and some light alcohol. The alcohol in the flavor was actually qwuite concealed and not as prevalent as expected. This is most likely fromt he huge amounts of sweet malts and sugar to cover it up. It is extremely cloying to me and hard to drink, yet at the same time kind of enjoyable in the small amount that I had. Lots of sugary fruity sweetness, toffee, light medicinal notes- cough syrupy, maple syrup, and treacle. Relatively smooth and a full body- coats the mouth well. Goes down smooth with a bit of warming in the end. I wasnt all that into this beer, but it was good for what it was.

2004... Poured a hazy, reddish amber color with no head or lacing. Super sweet, aroma, honey, molasses, raspberries, nuts, vanilla, and smoke. Really reminded me of the Kuhnhenn Rasp Eisbock in the nose. Taste was cloyingly sweet, with caramel malts, molasses, dark fruits, some smoke, and a strong alcohol presence.

Vintage 2004, Draft While not the reason to make a trek for, it sure is hard to resist a try when faced with it. Had to get a goblet full at the HDG.

Jez-us-K-ryest, aroma is strong and at first really gives off that Utopias feel. A pronounced prune alcohol with candied apples, some medicinal aspects, very sugary sweet as well. Taste is not so -shot in the chest- as one would expect. Sweet candy, some alcohol, but very subdued and nothing in the Utopias cheap cognac region. Full and heavy body, low bitterness. Surprisingly drinkable but still a very sweet brew. Color is dark amber with a small but strong head, cannot see through it but has a good amount of translucence.

On tap at the Hop Devil Grill, 2004 version. Deep amber/copper in appearance, a medium off white head. Heavy notes of caramel and fruit in the aroma, malts are somewhat oxidized from the 2 years of aging(not in a bad way). Taste is a heavy, thick malt and fruits- like plums, raisins, etc. The body is extremely full, syrupy on the palate with very faint notes of hop bitterness in the finish. Very well done for a beer at 19 %, a bit over the top for me personally but I really enjoyed the experience of trying this beer.