Garrison Ol’ Fog Burner

Brewed by Garrison Brewing Company
Style: Barley Wine
Halifax, Canada

Serve in Snifter

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All kinds of sugar ad spice in this beer. Aroma has hops booze and candied malt. Pours cloudy red. Aroma has strong bitterness and light sweetness. A good tug o war on the palate that comes off a bit on the inconsistent side. Thick consistency and boozy aftertaste. Friday sample bottle at volos.

Aroma is one of beer’s most complex features. Aroma is propelled by lively CO2 and dampened by pillowy heads - especially nitrogen foam. Click on a term below to add it to your tasting notes.

500ml bottle. 11.3%. Pours a clear burnt caramel colour with a thin beige head. The first thing that hits your nose is alcohol, and caramel. A good combo. Floral notes, and sultana raisins too. As for taste, sweet dried fruit notes, followed by some serious mouth burning alcohol, a taste that reminds me of cheap fruity hard candies, faint cherry cola, and some earthy/menthol notes in the bitter finish. Fog Burner indeed!

De couleur rouge-orangée, voilée, surmontée par une belle mousse dense et persistante qui se colle au parois du verre en lui tricotant une laine à grosse maille. Au nez, le sucre d’orge se signale en premier. Le malt et des effluves épicées s’ensuivent. Du caramel artisanal et un air de fin d’automne viennent compléter les propriétés olfactives. En bouche, elle très costaude, elle prend beaucoup de place. L’Alcool est plus présent au goût que dans les odeurs. Est-il trop imposant? La détection d’autres saveurs est rendu difficile. C’est certes malté et sucré. C’est liquoreux et ça picote la langue à l’occasion. Une légère amertume est ressentie, alors que les coins de la bouche restent collés. Ça ne me semble pas raffiné. Version à 11.5% (Batch #2045-47-Embout. 02 mars 2012) (440-051112)

Bottle thanks to Chad. Pours muddy dark brown with tan head. Nose/taste of caramel, dates, dark fruits, toffee malt, resin, sweet malt and Christmas spices. Medium body. Burnt caramel finish.

500 ml bottle. Pours a garnet red brown with little head. Strong sweet aromas of toffee, malt, strawberries, and resin. Tastes like liquid toffee and alcohol, with bitter orange and other dried fruit notes. Very warm but very nice. A favorite.

(Originally written for Winter 2009-10 issue of TAPS Magazine.) When opening a new barley wine nowadays, one can never be sure if it’ll be a traditional UK-style version (i.e. predominantly sweet and malty), or a more modern US-style interpretation (i.e. more bitter and hoppy). This one falls pretty squarely on the more traditional side. Exhibiting a slightly hazy dark copper colour with little head of speak of, it has a pleasantly warm and sweet aroma of caramel, cherry, vanilla, brown sugar and marzipan. The fairly low level of carbonation gives it a silky mouthfeel. The flavour is a bit befuddling – as suggested by the aroma, it’s quite sweet at first, but as it warms an unexpected but very pleasant tart cherry character comes to the forefront, along with some woody hop notes. One of the most interesting and satisfying barley wines I’ve tried in some time.

Very nice brew. I enjoy the sweetness. It comes off as a caramel before the spice and bitter kicks in.

Hazy brown pour, big beige head, wicked lacing. Huge aroma of piney, resinous hops, and quite a big of bready, booze soaked malts. Low carb, and a high bitterness. Big finish of thick chewy caramel malts, and another wave of resins and bitterness.

UPDATED: MAY 15, 2012 Bottled Feb 17, 2010. Dark ruby red in colour; large off white head quickly dies to a fine lacing. Aroma of sweet bready malts, caramel, milk chocolate, hops, currants, raisins prune & fig with some phenolic spice going on too. Flavour is sweet malt, spicy, bitter hops, citric (mainly oranges) with a hint of anise. Good level of carbonation tickling the tongue. Quite a bit of alcohol heat almost kept in check by the bitter sweet (hint of seville orange), long long finish. Leaves your lips nice and sticky. Maybe should have kept this for a while longer to let the alcohol burn mellow a little,