Barley Days Wind & Sail Dark Ale

Brewed by Barley Days Brewery
Style: Brown Ale
Picton, Canada

Serve in Dimpled mug

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Muddy dark colour with a frothy white head that lasts the length and clings to the sides of the glass. Nice chocolate malt, roasted coffee aroma. Pleasant enough ale, roasted malt flavour with a decent texture. Slight bitterness. Well balanced. Home brew feel to it, but rather good. Nice surprise.

341 ml bottle - pours deep brown with faint reddish highlights, and a large, billowy beige head that slowly settles down and leaves chunky lace on the sides of the glass. Aroma nutty malt, a bit of earth, some faint spice, almost verging on estery. Nice. Flavour is woven malts with an acceptable amount of almost minty hops. It is the malt on display here though, and there are waves of nuttiness, roast, and sweetness that mingle. Once the carbonation settles down, the beer has a velvety mouthfeel. Nice one.

341ml bottle @ the brain in hamilton. pours deep brown with a lasting tan head. sweet dark malty aroma. nice malty layered brown ale, slightly underhopped IMO. clean and servicable but a little too sweet.

Originally rated September 2007. Pours a caramel-copper colour with a beige head, average retention and no lacing. The nose has a good barley malt scent to it. The mouthfeel is a bit sticky, but still quite refreshing. Complex taste going through malt, toffee-brown sugar and ending on an apple flavour. Can also taste mild roasted notes. Quite a nice brew, that I would have again.

550ml draught
5.0% ABV
I tried this beer on tap on May 5, 2011 at "C’est What" in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The beer poured a clear dark copper colour with a this off-white head. The aroma was roasted malt, nuts, and mild caramel. Rhe mouthfeel was mediuym bodied with medium carbonation. The flavour was roasted malt, coffee, and nuts. I found it quite refreshing as it went down very easy.

Draught. Pours dark brown with good off-white head. Aromas of roasted coffee, yeast, and chocolate. Taste is complex with chocolate malts and coffee paired with nuts. Finishes with a bitter hop note. A very pleasant find.

Old rate. 355ml bottle from LCBO. My how things have improved for this brewery since it was called Glenora Springs. Having said that the general quality is still mediocre at best, but that’s a vast improvement over the old brewery’s fare. Pours a deep red with smallish cream head. Slight chocolate note in the nose but also cereal malts. Taste is similar but too thin, lacking complexity. Reminds me none to favorably of Rickards Red. Finish is instantly forgettable. A decent made but timid and safe beer.

Brown. Good, but quickly-fading beigehead. Aroma is somewhat faint, disappointing. Taste is nutty, roasy, even slightly smoky. Hops are earthy, but really, really subtle. Medium body, slightly watery feel. I though this one is way better than the rating suggest. It has its flaws for sure, but really interesting features as well. Just needs a little more malt or hops, or actually both.

UPDATED: SEP 29, 2010 Good beer, but it’s a bit out of balance still. Too much mineral flavour and too little malt and hops. The base is there, but it could improve a lot.

Bottle- Clear deep amber with small head that fades to lacing. Faint caramel and slight fruity sweetness. expected more. Sort of a mild fruity taste with a light bitter finish. Light body,and sort of dry. Not much to report here. Kind of bland, unoffensive. I expected something more.