Rock Art Vermonster

Brewed by Rock Art Brewery
Style: Barley Wine
Morrisville, Vermont USA

Serve in Snifter

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Pours a deep orangey hue, forming a light craggy head of foam. Aroma of tropical fruit, grapefruits, and hops. Complete hop bomb, grapefruit goodness. Has a juicy quality, unbelievable beer!

Bottle. Pours a murky dark brown. Very sweet smell and taste, can definitely taste raisins and brown sugar in it. Not bad, very very sweet though.

Originally reviewed: 11/4/09. Poured into my snifter. Pours a very rusty amber with a thin off-white head on top. Very little lace sticks. Right off the bat, I get whiffs of crisp piney hops, but this gives way to scents of toffee, caramel, and leather. The mouth is crisp with a moderate amount of carbonation, but it still carries a decent creamy feel. The alcohol is definitely present in this one. I can taste a slight boozy quality. The alcohol taste doesn’t linger too long as this gives way to a highly roasted caramel flavor. The finish on this is drying with hints of walnut and more toffee. This was a really good beer, and I’m glad I had the opportunity to give this one a try. Thankfully, I’ve got another that I can sit on for awhile. I’m interested to see what some time does to this beer. [*EDIT - New review of cellared bottle. Consumed on 3/23/2011 (cellared since Oct. ’09)] So happy that my wife picked this bottle out to have whilst watching some TV last night. Poured my allotment into an Allagash chalice. Pours a ruddy murky amber/brown with a thin beige head on top. The nose is still strong with some piney hops, sweet caramel, and lemon. The body has held up well. Goof firm heft, with a good amount of carbonation presence. The flavors have become more mild than I remember, and have melded together well. Sweet toffee, light bitter greens, with a chalky finish. Booze is not as known in flavor, but is known in affect. Still good after a couple years. Glad I kept one. This is a good style to sit on for awhile. Avg - 3.6

Growler from my Pal Fred. Nice dark Charamel pour with a thick head. Rosted Barley Charamel hops with a great pallet. This beer needs to be more accessible.

A -1 finger tan head - dark hazy brown S - Simcoe hops, maple syrup, roasted malts T - sweet and hoppy. Simcoe and citra hops, wheat, maple syrup. Lots of Malts and nice dry hop finish M - 50/50 carbonation, dry finish O - nice. Solid B

On tap at the brewery in Morrisville, VT. Pours a clear, dark amber colored body with a finger-width, creamy, beige head that dissipates slowly and leaves a solid lacing throughout. Aroma is medium sweet caramels, fruity and citrusy hops with some earth and a light pine, raisin dark fruits, a light toffee bread, and a hint of toast. Flavor is similar. Lots of hops up front with some citruses, raisin dark fruits, earth, and a few pines. Caramel offers a nice balance with some more toffee-bread and a light toast. Hops dry this out and leave it fairly bitter. Lengthy aftertaste following a medium-full, smooth body and a soft, moderate carbonation. Overall, a pretty solid barleywine. Quite hoppy with a nice caramel backing and array of fruits before a bitter, long, dry finish. Highly enjoyable.

Deep reddish brown in color with a foamy tannish head. Deep flavors of malt and dried fruit (raisin, fig, cherry) and a strong finish with a bit of hoppy bitterness.

Cloudy deep amber pour with small tan head. Very malty smell with hasn’t roasted malts. Tastes very malty with hops, but not as much as I’d hoped for. Roasty & malty finish, not much lingering. Good, but not great.

Ruby, dark amber-ish pour. Small off-white, tan head with some staying power. A little bit of lacing on the collapse. Big, rich, malty aroma with vanilla and fruity cereal notes. Big fruity cereal and hop flavor. Sweet but dry. Very good example of an American barley wine. Nice.

Vermonster is labeled as a barleywine but I see a lot of reviews that state this is more of a Imperial IPA. I can definitely see this if you had this beer at it’s freshest point. There are a good amount of hops in this beer but when I had it, it had a more malty aroma and flavor. More on that in a little bit. It pours a dark ruby red color. A great sized fluffy head pours. Great retention. It would of stuck around for ages if I let it. Good lacing throughout. The smell is full of rich caramel malt. In the background sits the citrus hops. I could defintely see the hops being more up front when this beer was younger. Still a decent aroma. The taste is more of the same. Malt is stronger then the hops. Mixed in there is a bitter hops taste. I think one of the great things about this beer is actually it’s mouthfeel. It’s really thick and creamy. Just coats the mouth. This beer sits at 10% abv. But it’s really drinkable. You sometimes get a little bit of an alcohol taste but not enough to ruin the good taste.

THOUGHTS: Not quite what I was expecting. Much smoother than most barley wines. Hid the alcohol and the high IBUs. Not very complex, but nice flavor and it was easy to drink. So malty that it blocked a lot of the bitterness at first, but it did get more bitter as it warmed, but remained well balanced. TECHNICAL: Bottle. Poured a medium to dark brown with red highlights and an average, beige head that mostly diminished and left good lacing. The aroma had moderate to heavy caramel and candy; light to moderate orange, lemon and lime hops; lighter grapefruit and pine hops; light apple; slight smoke; toffee; brown sugar; maple syrup; that barley wine smell; and a little fruitiness. The initial flavor was moderately to heavily sweet and light to moderately bitter; while the finish was heavily sweet and moderate to heavily bitter with a long duration. There was caramel, brown sugar, maple. syrupy, that barley wine taste, burnt caramel, candy, citrus hops (orange, grapefruit, lemon and a little lime), pine hops, a little alcohl, slight smokiness, tons of malt and candy goodness, toffee, and hints of roasted malt. The slightly more than medium body might have been thicker, but it was so oily it made it seem thinner. It was rather oily, a little sticky on the lips and slightly gritty with tingly carbonation and a lightly alcoholic finish.