Brewers Den Barley Wine

Brewed by Sun Up Brewing Company (Sonora Brewhouse)
Style: Barley Wine
Phoenix, Arizona USA

Serve in Snifter

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UPDATED: AUG 18, 2008 Enjoyed this on tap at their 7th Anniversary. Poured a mahogany color with a firm off-white head. Loaded with apricot on the nose. Plenty of caramel and malt in the flavor. Brilliantly balanced. Easily the best beer I’ve had at the Brewers Den.

Poured up on tap at Sun Up with clear deep copper with lasting off white head. The aroma is sweet with prunes, figs and pears as well as a bit of caramel candy too. The taste is much the same with sweet prunes and smashed ripe warmed cherries and then slick sweet sugary malts. It stays sweet with cherries, prunes and sugary malts as well as a bit of roasted malts as this heads into the finish. I get a faintly dry sense showing up form time to time likely from a bit of roasted malt astringency. This would be even amazing-er with some rye in it.

(On draught at the brewpub). Pours a clear mahogany color with thin tan head. Nice carbonation. Aroma has caramel, dried fruit (apricot?), vanilla. Taste is similar with brown sugar as well. Light bitterness. Medium bodied with sticky texture. Smooth finish with the alcohol showing some warmth. Pretty nice barleywine.

8 month old bw on cask at the pub 8/22/10. hazy ugly brown color with a beautiful cascade and soft tan cask head. surprisingly hoppy aroma... other notes of dust, damp grain, leaves, pine, vanilla, florals and malty caramel. the flavor is the same only with a bittered finish. alcohol shows a little but it is not harsh. medium to full bodied with a slick smooth cask texture. 8/4/8/4/16

On tap at the AZ Strong Beer Fest, February 2011. Pours dark brown with an off-white head. The nose is dark fruits, caramel, bready yeast and booze. The taste is toffee, dark fruits, caramel, earthy hops and booze. Medium bodied. A bit boozy but tasty.

Tap at AZSBF.Pour is brown-amber with an off-white head. Aroma shows notes of toffee, vanilla, red berries, and earthy hops. Flavor shows the same with additional notes of candied pine and raw alc.

Dark brown pour. Aroma of caramel, toffee, yeast, bready notes, light vanilla and roasted malt. Flavor is lightly sweet, tar, candy sugar, syrup, pumpernickel bread. Good.

On tap; poured a rich auburn with not much head. Aroma of sweet malt, caramel, fruit, alcohol, and a touch of earth. Flavor of fruit punch, sweet malt, earth, alcohol, caramel and bread.

Tap at the brewery. Deep amber color pour with a nice sticky frothy head. Lots of caramel malt and ripe fruit, well balanced by a nice dose of grapefruit hops. A very good brew.

UPDATED: JUN 20, 2010 Sampled at 1702, Tucson February 2009
This arrives from the tap with a beautifully clear, dark amber hue that is topped by a frothy, lightly tanned, initially one-finger thick head. There is a weird fruitiness to the nose; sort of like cherry cough-syrup, that is huge and completely out of place in this beer, and, while it is not unpleasant, especially if one was to evaluate this as a cherry beer. I am really having a hard time smelling anything but the berry / cherry cough-syrup aromas that are in the nose.

The taste is quite sweet, thick feeling and rich, but again the cherry cough-syrup is the dominant note. There is a firm bitterness, though it is not enough to balance the sweetness. Flavors of cherry and sweet medicinal phenolics are an odd focus for a Barleywine. Some herbal, sugar-dried pine-needle notes and a candied citrus hop character are noticeable here too, if you dig around.

This is just weird and, ultimately, wrong. I am not sure what is going on with this beer. In its current state it might actually age into an interesting beer. Assuming this is not infected, then I don’t think the yeast were healthy enough to ferment this beast of a beer; lots of extra esters, fusels, phenols and higher alcohols don’t necessarily make this unbalanced, but it does make for a weird experience.

Enjoyed on tap at the brewpub. Big alcohol, so had at the end of the afternoon, when food could help. Expecting more of an American barleywine, this still had some hop bitterness. The alcohol was very present. Decent mouthfeel.Fairly light looking body, and the whisp of a head.