Gold Label

Brewed by Samlesbury (InBev UK)
Style: Barley Wine
Preston, England

Serve in Snifter

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Can at Cole’s in Buffalo, NY. Sweet aroma of adjuncty malts, hints of caramel and an underlying booze presence. The flavor is more of the same, maybe a touch of fruity sweetness, but really not much good is going on here. At least it’s drinkable.

Small brown 180ml bottle with a ’very strong’ 8% vol brew inside. Best before July 09, drank March 09. Poured into a 0.2litre stemmed Budweiser Budvar tulip glass. Deep amber colour, clear and clean looking, with a white foaming head that fell away far to fast for my liking. Fairly sweet aroma, plums and pears mixed with toffee apple type hints. Plums in the taste, dates and figs too, not really sweet, but there is a suggestion of sugar throughout the drink. Rich without being creamy or sickly, sherry like in many aspects, slightly woody feel too, which adds to the sherry idea. I know old lady’s are supposed to drink this in ’snuggs’ and back rooms of English boozers, but it is years since I have seen such a thing. More’s the pity because this style will die in the UK if someone doesn’t start drinking it soon!

180ml bottle . pours clear amber with white head which just about stays as a thin layer on top with lacing down the glass . Aroma not so prominent but I get malts , caramels . medium carbonation and medium full body . taste is medium sweet , caramel with an edgy bitterness that is a touch metallic .alcohol taste and warmth at the finish.

Bitter with a slightly fruity taste finished off with a strong alcohol taste on the palate

Bottle. Deep golden colour with no head. Aroma is alcohol, caramel, malt. Flavour is sweet, alcohol, caramel, malt, hop, dried fruit, raisin. Nice beer.

Bottle.Pours deep golden with a small white head.Aroma of malt, grains, fruitiness, dried fruits and raisins.Flavor is sweet and malty with some fruitiness and grains.Medium body, average carbonation.Nice barley wine.

Bottle 180ml @ yngwie
Pours clear dark golden with a small off-white head. Aroma has notes of malt and caramel. Taste is medium to heavy sweet and light bitter. Body is medium to full, texture is oily, carbonation is soft to flat.

180ml bottle Strong ester smell of pineapple and some butterscotch with blackcurrant. Midbrown with thick body and massive sweetness. No head. Prickly carbonation, some soapyness and a sickly sweet finish. Too sickly to drink again but could make a good cooking ingredient.

Amber colour with a thin head, sweet malt aroma, strong alcohol taste. My grandmother always loved this but when I tried it as a youngster I thought it was horrible, how tastes change.

Can, at home on a restful Sunday evening. Pours clearish, copper-orange with a fast-fading foam head. Lots of booze on the nose with some dank, ripe fruits. The flavor, as others have noted, is not as bad as you might think. I’d place it somewhere between ’poor’ and ’mediocre.’ The alcohol presence is obvious and serves as the major characteristic of this beer, which is never a good thing. There are notes of caramel and ripe fruits like berries or something, but each note is tainted with alcohol. Full bodied with lively carbonation, which forces the booze into every part of the mouth. The finish is warm - almost hot! - with cloying alcohol and sugar. The presence of some sort of bitterness now becomes apparent. I will finish the entirety of my can, but only as a show of manhood. This stuff really isn’t too pleasant to drink

They must market this at tramps. Anything in a gold can says drink me in a park, soil yourself if you like. 49p at my local offy! What in the name of high school football are they thinking? They must be drinking it. It’s actually nowhere near as bad as I thought. Why do tramps drink Kestrel Super or Special Brew when you can drink this? Yes it’s not refinied, metallic, overly strong alcohol in the flavour but I could drink this again. Hmmm, I might not shave tomorrow...to be continued...