Great Divide Old Ruffian

Hops, hops, hops. Smells flowery and hoppy, tastes hoppy. Has a strong alcohol presence.

This has been in my cellar for 2+ years, and decided to crack it open. Pours a nice amber brown with decent head to it. Good caramel on the nose. Flavor is sweet, rich with caramel malt a lot of fruit and finishes with a big hoppy bite. Really nice, was shocked that it didn’t show any signs of age. Really good mouthfeel and hid the alcohol rather well.

Bomber. Pours deep ruby and crimson with very little head. Hops dominate the aroma, but also present are caramel malt, vanilla, and sweet fruitiness. Makes the tip of my tongue tingle with the first sip, moving to the back of my tongue. Hoppy, bitter, full of floral and pine hops. Aggressive but smooth. I like this one. Also, the alcohol is well-hidden.

Poured a hazy ruby color with an off-white head that produced a spot or two of lacing. The aroma is hops. Pine-sol and not much else. No balance. The flavor is a super hoppy, pine and floral excursion into excess. Maybe some light citrus in there, but the malt backbone is nonexistent. Dry as a bone on the finish. Meh.

Super hazy ruby coloured body with a thinnish off-white head. Nice looking! Aroma of strong sweetness, a lot of fruit, malt, caramel and a good hoppy scent. Nice oaky flavour with vanilla noticeable up front with tons of hops and a load of sugar - a lot of absolutely everything. A huge beer, no matter how you look at it! Overall, almost too much, but nothing horribly wrong with it. I sampled this 65 cL bottle purchased from Chevy Chase Wine & Liquors on 23-June-2005 at Jon(R888710)’s.

Pours reddish copper. Aroma is big hops and caramel. Flavor is lots of sweet malt, some dark fruit, with a bitter hoppy finish.

Dark amber pour with medium head that never really disappears. Delicious barleywine smell, with strong fruit, caramel and malt in the nose, not so much the hop. Medium mouth. Under carbonated. Very sticky on palate and much lacing on glass. Tastes especially sweet finshing up. Not my favorite, but gets the job done.

starts hoppy moves into a nice maltyness and finishes a dry bitter. otherwise the commercial description pegs it for me. one of my favorite barely wines in many years.