Fish Tale Leviathan Barleywine (Barrel Aged)

Bottle November 2001. Deep mahagony color with a creamy tan head. Nice caramel and molasses in the aroma. Very strong. Malty. Very malty in the aroma. Some dry hopping as well. Hint of citrus, and other fruit flavors that I can’t figure out. Very complex taste.

Deep amber with ruby highlights; very little head. Woodsy nose. Quite a bit going on. Mouthfeel was mildly carbonated and weighty. Malts were full and thickishly sweet, but not necessarily cloying. Big notes of oak, sherry, salt, and spiced granny smith apples. Quite a bit of sourness; lesser notes of tart and tang. Spicy hops with notes of grass and maybe a little citrus. Bitterness is mild, though. Dried apricot flavors lingered and made my mouth water profusely. Pretty good, and it surely kept my interest. Not your typical American barleywine.

(750 ml bottle: ScottVacula’s Barleywine Party ’04) Malty and mildly sweet, but lightly bitter and quite tart with some light sour apple; There’s also a fairly prominent wood barrel flavor going on; The palate is heavy, sweet and sticky, but also quite tangy for a nice, balanced mouthfeel; Mildly sour nose like a Belgian sour, but with a distinct wood barrel aroma; Dark amber color; Tan hed is small and bubbly n the pour and soon fades to a small rim

7/24/04. Poured out of 750 mL bottle, sampled at San Diego Barley Wine Tasting courtesy of SDbruboy 7/24/04. Pours a ruddy brown with haze and no head. Deep caramel aroma. Very nice, obviously a barley wine but with a touch of the wood character to make it stand out. Still, the bright wood burn on the flavor creeps up on you. Some sort of waxy flavor to it as well, and somehow the malts are pushed aside and to the back. Still pretty good, but after that killer aroma, the flavor really disappointed me. Good beer, but it needs some time to measure up to the older bottles I’ve had before.

Bottle 2002. Pours amber-reddish with a thin head. Aroma is unique, very oaky with definite wine notes from the wine barrel aging and alcohol. Flavor is tangy and tannic agaiin noticibly vinuous, sweet maltiness and a tart finish. Smooth, full body with little carbonation. One of a kind BW, good now and could benefit from some aging as well.

Bottle. In the vaults of HI International. Pretty full on Jagermeister/Gammle Dansk sort of flavour. Spicey, raisiny, fruit cake,liquer qualities. Some vegemite in there, would be pretty good with a bit more age perhaps?

Aestetically (sp?) pleasing. Looks nice and smell nice. But as others have noticed there is a strange tartness that will not go away. The alcohol is actually kinda restrained in my bottle (Batch #4, November 2002). Sort of apricot like to me.

It pours a brown color with a small head. Nice woody aroma with caramel and malt. The flavors are woody, caramel, malt, alcohol, hops and citrus. Vinous mouthfeel. Very good, deep and complex barley wine.