Goose Island Broad Shoulders Barleywine

Brewed by Goose Island Beer Company (Brewpubs)
Style: Barley Wine
Chicago, Illinois USA

Serve in Snifter

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On tap at the Clybourn brewpub. Pours a deeper amber colored body with some brownish-orange tints and a very dense, creamy and foamy, inch thick, beige head that dissipates slowly and leaves a nice lacing. Aroma is pretty malty sweet with lots of cherry raisins, brown sugar, and figs. Malts have some toffee and caramel with just the slightest toasty biscuit. No real hopping, but the malts aren’t too rich so this feels balanced so far. Flavor is similar with a light hop sticking out at the end. Still pretty cherry malty sweet up front with toffee and raisins. Some caramel, a bit more noticeable toast with maybe a hint of tobacco, and more dried figs. Finishes with a light alcohol and some earthy spice, but still fairly sweet, clean, and balanced while lightly drying. Lengthy aftertaste following a medium-full, very soft and smooth body with a creamy, light-medium carbonation. Overall, a pretty nice barley wine. Fairly sweet, but well balanced with enough of a hopping at the end. Easy drinking and enjoyable without being too big.

On tap at the brewpub (Chicago, IL). Pours a darker brownish ruby hue, though fairly transparent. A smallish tannish head sits atop that dies to a film, laces small. Aromas are sweeter malts, toffee and biscuits, caramel, and mellow toasty malts. Initial is sweeter and bigger bodied, offering caramel and toffee, toast, mellow brown sugar and vanilla. Some touches of red fruit. A bit over sweetened for me. Into the middle, malt shines through with touches of dry toast, mellow red fruit lingers a bit more. Finish dries up a bit, shows some light spice, yet remains fairly sticky overall. I’d have to say it’s similar to Cherry Blossom, too sweet, bigger overall. Ok, I guess.

On cask at GTMW 11. Hazed red orange with a white head. Cherries fruit malt aroma. Sweet cherries bitter malts. Not bad. A little sweet and fruity. 7/3/7/3/15

Cask at Great Taste. Pours a ruddy gold tending towards brown with minimal head. Nose is hugely malty. Good sweetness and round malt character. Big and burly. Minimal hop character remains, just leaving the dark fruit and raisiny brown sugar. On tasting, this is sweet but balanced. Lots of the dried fruit rolling through with dates and sun dried figs. Brown sugar and kettle caramelization. Pretty deep and worthwhile as an English Barleywine. I like.

GTMW. Red-amber in color. Malty caramel and toasted malts, fruit aspects, grapefruit hops. Malt fruitness and sweetness. Some moderate hop bitterness. Some alcohol notes, but not too much heat. Pretty good overall.

On tap at the pub...Pours dark copper with lots of amber notes, very clear edges, but murky center. A light tan head, with sparse foam and lacing...The aroma is an typical barleywine, sweet toffee balanced by hops. Not unique but executed correctly...The taste is on the sweeter side, but not sweet so its really drinkable. I almost prefer this to the Icarus. A little hop balance, super drinkable for 8%. Recommend.

Draft at clybourn. Barleywine has been a tough style for goose. They hit gold with batch 2K and brandywine but ever since then they’ve all been sweet messes. Here we go! Pours amber with small off white head. Aroma has very sweet red and dark fruits, cotton candy, apple, raisin, toffee and booze. Flavors are rather sweet and cloying, cotton candy, apple, raisin, and toffee. Starts sweet but there’s an attempt at drying out with dark frui and tobacco. This is actually better than recent goose attempts at a barleywine but it clearly needs to age a year to soften up and reduce that sweetness.

On tap at goose island clybourn... Pours a mostly transparent but dark toffee reddish amber brown pour with a medium milky white head quickly reducing to a thin film... Caramel and toffee nose mingle with subtle dark fruit and earthy hops coming trough on the backend ... Flavors are mire akin to an English style barleywine, sweeter in nature, with focus on caramel toffee malt upfront and finishing with an earthy pine bitterness that takes hold midway through and holds strong through the finish. Smooth consistency teetering not too far from the thinner side though the sweetness is a touch overbearing but not by a whole lot. Not a bad offering here.