Great Divide Old Ruffian

Brewed by Great Divide Brewing Company
Style: Barley Wine
Denver, Colorado USA

Serve in Snifter

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22 ounce bottle into snifter, no bottle dating(but presumed to be Dec 2009 bottling). Pours fairly hazy brick red color with a nice 1 finger dense khaki head with great retention, that reduces to a thin cap that lingers. Some pretty nice lacing on the glass. Aromas of huge caramel, raisin, biscuit, toast, molasses, honey, pine, grapefruit, earth, herbal, toffee, and light spiciness. Fantastic and well balanced aromas with big complexity. Taste of huge caramel, raisin, molasses, toast, biscuit, herbal, grapefruit, earth, and light pine resin spiciness. Minimal bitterness on the finish; with lingering notes of caramel, molasses, toast, raisin, biscuit, grapefruit, herbal, earth, and light spiciness on the finish for a while. Fantastic flavor balance and complexity; with no cloying sweetness at all. Medium carbonation and full bodied; with a nice creamy, slick, and thick mouthfeel. Quite smooth to sip on; with only an moderate alcohol warming present after the finish. Overall this is an absolutely fantastic barely wine with the age on it. The hoppy flavors smoothed out into perfect balance; with great complexity. Magnificent.

Bottled on Dec 2011, pours a rusty amber color with a small white head, lacing all around the glass. Nose is slightly sweet and fruity, a slight funkiness smell too. Taste great! Sweet at first with a nice hop bitterness on the end. Great brew! I’d love to age a few of these!

Bottle. Clear rusty amber pour with a foamy beige head that lasts a little while. Sweet malty aroma with a big toffee overtone has subtle notes of coffee, pine, musk, chocolate and citrus. Flavour is just like the aroma: malt driven but with a strong hop presence, hints of bread, nuts, spice, flowers and roastiness. Full bodied but not oppressively so, with a slick mouthfeel, soft carbonation and a long bitter, slightly spicy finish. Very nice and very easy drinking given the abv and the style.

4 finger beige head that sinks to 3mm, red-amber head. Nose: Plum, raisins, malt and madeira. Aroma: Raisins, plum, resin, grapefruit-peel, madeira, grapes, spruce and alcohol-sting. A bit "raw" or rustic in a good way. Long, dry and bitter ending.

Very cloudy dark amber-orange pour with a little head. Amazing aroma of caramel malt, rye, and citrus hops. Taste is very sweet at first (maybe a little too much) then bitterness strikes it down. Smooth finish. A very good barleywine but not my favorite. ---Rated via Beer Buddy for iPhone

Weicher, alkohlisch getreidiger Beginn. Deutliche Holznoten, im Mittelteil hopfige, später deutlich bittere Noten. Süßlich alkoholische Pflaumenaromen. 13/10/11/11/8/11

Bottle, 14C. Copper with an inch of beige head that fades a bit. Aroma of toffee, pine, grapefruit, peaches. Taste is abruptly bitter and boozy then very sweet with some raisins and dried peaches and lots of toffee and butterscotch. Quite syrupy, although there’s some creaminess. Pine, alcohol and bitterness re-emerge at the end. Bitterness creeps up after a while. Too sweet and heavy for the hops to run the show and too bitter to invite one to savour the malt side, it ends up a bit tedious. Not my sort of thing.

Pours reddish with no head Aromas caramel, red malts. Typical barley aromas are there. Oaky, buttery, bitter taste. medium sweetness. A perfectly fine barley wine

Pours a beautiful deep burgundy with a bubbly cream head and spider web lacing. Smells of deep toffee with a luscious hop overtone. The taste is orgasmic. Toffee, brown sugar, complex malt, syrup, dough, and dank hops converge on the palate in a glorious tribute to barleywines everywhere. My God this is a fantastic beer.

Excellent barleywine. Aroma of sweet fruits and deep piney hops nice pour taste has excellent balance, depth, and finish wish I had more!