Fish Tale Leviathan Barleywine (Barrel Aged)

Formerly brewed at Fish Brewing Company/Leavenworth Beers
Style: Barley Wine
Olympia, Washington USA

Batch No.4 (Nov. 2002). Strong, fruity, sweet and complex aroma, with heavy notes of red wine, plum, tart berry and brown sugar alongside fainter qualities of apricot, cinnamon, cardamom, wood, cassis, earth, herbs and medicinal alcohol. Partially opaque reddish-mahogany color, with a diminishing head and very fine lacing. Flavor profile is fruity and sweet to start, seeing an influx of tartness and nuttiness midway and with a tangy, moderately bitter, sour and alcoholic finish. Body is medium-full, the palate thin, smooth and winey. Challenging and unique.

750ml bottle, 2000 vintage. Pours a deep rusty brown with a faint reddish hue. Head was beige/ tan in color with great retention. Tons of sweet caramel, toffee, dried tree fruits and some light vinous notes. The flavor held some distant wine tanins, as well as candy sugar, sweet caramel, maple, toffee and pretty much any candied fruit you can imagine. The finish is where I started really picking up the oak in this beer, very long finish, brew was medium to full in body. One of my top 10 beers for sure.....I need more of this!!!!

(Old rating discovered in a dusty pile of forgotten notes.) Pours clear reddish brown. Oxidized apples and caramel nose. Sweet full body. The hops have completely fallen out of this beer after six years, so there’s nothing left to battle against the sweet fruit taste. Oak-dry finish.

cloudy amber with a creamy head..my notes are drunk, but they repeat "candy sweetness" and "super sweet" and all that jazzz a million times...I had a 2000 & a 2002..the 2002 had a tart aroma with creamy blissfully tangy hop flavors...re-rate 01 vintage: I think i was more sober than the first time i had this beer, and so i must raise its score significantly (although i originally gave it a 4.2)...my notes indicate that it poured a gleaming dead maroon and smelled of licorice infused cream and aged malt. The flavors had big anise candy notes and it had a thick mouthfeel...I wrote "candy wet dream" in my notes...licorice cream...super creamy...and i wrote that it was the best Barley wine ever....so...see for yourself.re-rate I had the chance to spend some time with this beer and all i can say is, SHIT! The wine barrel adds the coolest vinous flavor to this thing that if i had to choose but 1 beer to drink for the rest of my life, this would be it...its just so freakin amazing.

Vintages 99’ through ’02 Ruby brown in color with a small off-white head. Aroma and flavor is toasted malt,wood and nuts. Warming alcohol palate with a sweetness that covers your tongue.

2001 Bottle shared at the Columbus Tasting V, shared by OhioDad: Brown pour with a tan head. Aroma, caramel, toffee, some oak. Flavor, caramel, some earthy hops, oaky, some fruits. Really nice, and still doing quite well.

batch 3 Botl’d Nov 2001 The aroma was herby w/ citrus and hints of alcohol, it poured a dark color w/ hints of red and a thin white head that quickly disapated. The palate was incredibly creamy and smooth.. it was like a party in my mouth.. It tasted of sweet berries w/ a hint of alcohol.. This was very very good.. Please give me more! Sampled again. This is most definatlelly a 5 in appearance a nice dark brown pour w/ a huge reverse cascade small bubbled thick staying head w/ some great lacing. Aroma has more oak than i remember very big sweetness w/ a more subdued hop than before, i’m assuming do to the age. I now smell more of the wine/sherry aroma... I have re-rated this form a 4.7 to a 5.0. There can be no better beer in my eyes. Other notes I’m amazed this has state as hop assertive in flavor for a beer that is over 4 years old already. This stuff is just soooo good.

Thanks to Eyedrinkale for sharing this at the CL RB gathering. 2002 bottle. At first I thought I detected some brett in the aroma/taste then realized it was the tannic qualities from the wood. Pours a deep hazy amber. Aroma is wood, sweet malts, some vinous fruit, pretty complex. The taste follows suit with sweet malts in harmony with wood, tannins, and vinous fruits. Whiskey undertones in the finish.