Boulder Beer Killer Penguin Barleywine

Brewed by Boulder Beer Company
Style: Barley Wine
Boulder, Colorado USA

Serve in Snifter

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2005 Vintage. Dark red color with a whispy head. Strong aroma of malt and raw barley. Taste oddly switched to dry malt and finished quite bitter. Nothing horribly wrong, just nothing inspiring either.

2005 bottle poured into a snifter. Aromas of honey, maple, faint hops and alcohol. All quite mild. Very underwhelming. An aggressive pour conjured up a head the fizzed out within seconds. Looks like black cherry Kool-Aid. The flavor also leave something to be desired. You catch some caramel, honey flavors, but nothing interesting. The mouthfeel is just as thin as it looks. Watery, with an alcohol burn. Hope this gets better for next year.

22 oz bottle (2005) from Premier Gourmet in Buffalo NY (Dec 2005). Cellar temperature in a Maudite glass. Very little head forms and even less survives a minute atop the dark ruddy molasses body....big burnt-sugar, agressive hoppy tone immediately in the nose; wet dried wood and a rather stale malt component lessen the impact....the flavor is syrupy-sweet and fairly hoppy, sort of a maple-honey-brown sugar meets fresh pine and burnt tar....and it just doesn’t work at all...the sugars seem not nearly fermented out, it’s like drinking a sugar-spiced IPA more than anything, though the hops aren’t distinct and interesting enough to really help matters. Alcohol becomes way too prominent as it warms; carbonation quite low. I don’t know where I’m going with this, but it may be to the drain....a mess.

Translucent, tawny brown color, bright clarity, with a thin, tan head that dissolves quickly. Aroma is rich, dessert-like, crystallized, caramel sugar with some milk chocolate, toffee, and dark fruit like figs and raisins that makes this more like a strong belgian brown ale. Flavor has many of the aroma components but a strong hop bitterness and hot alcohol detracts from the palate. The malt flavors already taste like they have been cellared for many years, even syrupy in texture, and even have an oxidized note to them. Drink now...age at your own risk.

22-oz. bottle. Pours mahagony, very bubbly like a soda, with a tiny off-white head and ruby hints. Soapy caramel malt (cookie) and yeast (horse blanket) aroma with a hop nose and candied fruit (plum), port notes. Moderately bitter and spicy, moderately acidity that slowly fades, medium sweetness and a candied fruit, caramel malt and maple body. Medium bodied and fizzy-spicy palate.

2005 Vintage: Pours a transparent dark copper orange with a frothy, nicely-lacing off-white head. Sweet sugary caramel malty aroma has a nice piney hop balance. Body starts with sweet dark gritty caramel toffee sweetness and a good green spruce and pine hoppy balance. FInishes crisp, dry, and slightly warming.

Dark mahogany color, thin off-white head. Aroma of malts, plum, and some light maple syrup notes. Sweet malts, and again maple syrup and plum in the flavor. Some light toasted notes and bitter hoppy finish with hints of citrus.

2005 Vintage. Poured a deep amber color with an off-white head. Aroma is thick. Sweet malt and fruitiness. Mostly peach. Malty flavor with caramel, biscuit, and fruit. Medium body with an acidic finish. Nice warming sensation.

Aroma: light brown sugar, dried plums, some light honey, molasses?, some mustiness, and minerals
Appearance: golden orange-yellow brown, small head, lacing
Flavor: brown sugar, light honey, dark fruits, and some wood
Palate: smooth but thin (for barleywines), fizzy

Semi-dark brown and rusty red hue, clear. Nose contains scents of sharp scotch, plums, cherries and wood, along with a more harsh or biting alcohol and unrefined bite - but the thing to note is that overall it’s a very faint scent... very light. Flavor-wise it’s on the low end of barley wines as far as texture, thickness and flavor goes... which is funny after reading the obligatory "you can’t handle this beer" blabber on the bottle. If anything, this would work well as a scotch or winter beer, but not what they try to call a winter barley wine. Light, crisp and fresh, with cherries and slightly sweet dark fruits and wood in the malt flavors, and a more sharp and biting hop presence. Seems they should give this one another go, it’s boring. Drinkable and tasty, but boring.