Dominion Millennium

Brewed by Old Dominion Brewing Company (Coastal Brewing Co.)
Style: Barley Wine
Dover, Delaware USA

Serve in Snifter

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bottle, dark amber with short white foam, aroma is fruity with some beefy plastic, flavors of baseball glove, liniment, cardboard, metallic nail polish

2/24/11. 12oz bottle. Clear light red pour with a small white head that’s gone instantly. Light aroma of dark fruits and brown sugar with some cardboard. Sweet dark fruit flavor with orange peel and brown sugar. On the light and straightforward side.

For a barley-wine, this struck me as being no better than average. There are barley-wines that are potent in their similarity to wine or spirits, with an alcohol astringency and slight sourness...and then there are barley-wines that are tremendously hoppy. And then there’s this barley-wine. It’s just kind of there. Appearance and mouthfeel are pleasant, but this has to be the least flavorful beer of this style, for good or bad, that I’ve ever had. It pours an orange ambrosia color, with so little head that I thought it would be very flat. However, mouthfeel was fairly complex and pleasant. But aroma and flavor were a bit of a let-down, or perhaps just a non-issue. Both were very faint. I detected some malt backbone and a whiff of hops, but this struck me as a beer that had lost its bite since packaging. If you’re hanging onto a bottle of this for cellaring, I’d advise you to drink it now. This ber is so mellow, so mild-mannered, so (if I dare say) boring, that I can’t imagine letting it mellow some more. I picked this up during a recent visit to the DC area from Norm’s Beer & Wine in Vienna, VA. The bottle informed me that it was packaged on 4 April 007, and the label told me it would lay down for "several years."

Bottle. Tasted relatively young, about four months after bottling. Sweetish malty aroma. Interesting choice of hops, here (Mount Hood, Perle, Liberty, Goldings), lightly floral with a faint bg funk, but nothing really establishes itself. Amber body, darker than clear, with a fluffy soapy off-white / tanned head. Hefty, alcohol soaked body, slightly tongue numbing with a boozy finish. Caramel and wet cardboard dominate the taste, a vague hint of just-ripened fruit in jam form, but nothing to earn points. Medium body, soft with only a flash of carbonation. Hate to crush this one, but this is a mess.

Nice barleywine, but nothing special. Very little in the way of aromas. Flavor is muted. Funky finish. Alcohol is not noticable. Drinkable but overall uninteresting.

Bottle from Cavie. Brownish orange pour with a white head. Aroma is plums and too much sweetness. Taste is also just too damn sweet.

Draught from a 5-year old keg. Pours a cloudy brown with a small white head. Aroma is very sweet---vanilla, oak, alcohol, and sweet sweet sweet malt. Flavor is the same--lots of vanilla, alcohol, and sweet super sweet malt. Oh yeah, it was sweet. Too much for me. To the rater below me: no the alcohol does not tone down with age. Blech. This was a disappointment. 4/4/4/2/8 (2.2/5)

cloudy copper colour, cherry aroma, astringent, unpleasant bitterness, aggressive

Is it possible got a bad bottle?I read the other rates and they don’t match what I tasted.Beer was not sweet but bitter.As you drank this more and more the bitterness came out.Did not rival a barley wine at all.

12 oz bottle w/bottling date 04/08/06. Pours a clear reddish amber color w/no head. Nice sweet aroma. Wasn’t thrilled w/this one; kind of bland, one dementional flavor. Some malt, a little oak, a little molasis type sweetness, but nothing that really jumped out & grabbed me. Bought this sixer when it came out & I’ve had a few of them but never when I was in the best condition. Never rated it as I wasn’t thrilled w/them & wanted to give it a fair shot; figured it was me. Traded a few & was down to my last one so I sat down to drink one & give it a fair rating. A lot of people rave @ it, but it just wasn’t my cup of tea. Long, bland, dry finish; alcohol was well hidden. Maybe needed to age longer & develop more flavor??