Full Sail Old Boardhead Barleywine

Brewed by Full Sail Brewing Company
Style: Barley Wine
Hood River, Oregon USA

Appearance: Pours a hazy, dark amber body with a thin, shockingly short-lived, white head. Smell: Aroma of aged caramel and vintage toffee candy nearly eclipsed by strong, sweet-smelling fruit notes. Taste: Sweet, sugary malts displayed as caramel and light toffee with some sherry-like oxidation. Highly fruity, with tastes of peaches, apricots, and fresh Florida oranges. Only a soft, subdued bitterness remains at this point. Old Boardhead remains very fruity right to the very end of the warming, drying finish. Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied. Medium-low carbonation. Drinkability: I’ve found fresh bottles to be coming up a bit short on the malts and having an abrasive hop profile. So, I was rather pleased to have a 2002 bottle cross my glass. While never bad, it just doesn’t shine for me and, regardless of fresh or aged, it seems to be just a step or two behind the rest of the barleywine pack.

pours a brown orange with a very thin head. Aroma is very assertive with sweet and slightly fruity notes. Flavor is more sour than anticipated and the brew is a bit less thick than u would like but overall a good beer.

smells sweet and fruity (like orange peels and caramels), overshadows a faint alcoholic odor. pours thickly and is cloudy amber with thin head. taste is far hoppier and bitter than the aroma indicates. however, the same flavors that are in the smell show up here too (bitter orange peel, burnt sugar). Also, the flavor of the alcohol is there, but it’s muted, which I like. It pours thick and feels thick, and it has full flavor. However, it’s unfortunate that the flavor doesn’t have much range. B

Had this after Old Guardian, it does compare but has a lighter taste and feel. Sweet caramel BW with hops. Good especially for the price.

The smell is sweet, alchol, caramel, malts, and some hoppiness. The look is cloudy, amber color, with a small off white head. Some laciness. The taste is some bitterness, hops, pine, caramel, alcohol, and malts.

Brown in color and cloudy with a small off-white head. Aroma is of caramel, light hops and fruit. Taste is of honey, caramel and a moderate hop bitterness.

22oz bottle, ’07. Dark amber/brown almost with a little red glow. Super dark fruit aroma, very rich and incredible smelling. Taste is much the same as the aroma, but with a nice hop bite, very good barley wine.

Aroma- Estery and piney. The aroma is of warm holiday smells, like cinamon, apple pie. Appearance- Dark Copper, nice tan head that has some staying power. Flavor- There are flavors that are similar to the aroma, but with an extremely bitter kick. Crazy Hoppy. I like that it favors a fresh taste over the taste of dried fruits, but the hop bitterness detracts from the taste. Palate- A Barleywine has a tendency to be too cloying and chewey, but this is relatively light in body. Alcoholic dryness is abundant, but seems to work. Hops linger on the roof of my mouth for a while and tend to become more overpowering as the beer is consumed. It is important to share with a friend.