Great Divide Old Ruffian

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

Very nice red-brown beer with warm orange glow. This beer has a creamy yellow-beige froth. The head is very dens and soft aromatic. It has an expressive nose with aroma’s of caramel, Toblerone, mocca-liquor, honey, crème brullée with lavender flowers, nuts, tropical wood, herbs and loads of soft hops. The mouthfeel is soft and smooth with a sexy fruity-caramel accent. The sweetness is complex and has hints of nougat, honey, burned caramel and Swiss herb-toffée’s. On the middel pallet there are some fruity apricot and peache-stone hints that turns into a masieve hoppyness. You can notice a greenish bitterness of banana-skin some grape branches and pits, sage, cedar wood, some metalic touches, mint and loads of hops. The alcohol is present in this brew, and gives it a mellew body warming caracter. A Big thanks goes to Jeppe (Bierkönig) for this one.

Deep dark reddish brown color with a somewhat thin head. Taste is dominated by hops at first with a nice nutty malt finish. Aftertaste is sweet and lingering after bitterness of the hops passes. This is quite enjoyable.

Old rating: Reddish, copper color, khaki head. Aroma is malty, caramel, toffee, & citrus buried in the background. Mouthfeel is huge. Initial taste is malty, caramel, toffee, mildly earthy followed by warm alcohol, nuttiness, and toffee.

Bottle. Copper coloured with poor head retention. Extremely hoppy aroma mixed with caramel and dried fruits. Sweet flavours mingles with an almost vibrant bitterness on the tongue. The aftertaste is long and bitter and dominated by citrus fruits and flowers.

Split this with crosling while listening to hip-hop I take a few slow sips and get the foam on my lips The nose is unobtrusive, yet the hops are rather abusive (but only in a wonderful, masochistic sort of way) I could drink this every day. And even though this Ruffian tastes mighty fine, the fact remains, you can’t screw up a barleywine!

Bottle. Creamy off-white good mostly deminishing head. Redbrown colour. Powerfull healy malty and hoppy aroma. Very nice flavor and long finish. Very oily palate. A fantastic beer.

2006 bomber. Pours a translucent ruby amber with a large creamy off white head that left tons of lacing. Great looking BW. Great orange aroma (Tang), candy sweetness, tropical fruits, hints of dark fruits, caramel, pine, some vanilla. Flavor is full on hops, great hop bitterness and loads of malt sweetness. Sweetness on the sticky side, but not something I really get turned off with in a BW. I could see how aging this more could mellow it out, but I enjoy the hoppiness that this one had while still on the young side.

Cloudy rust - copper color with a one finger head ; nice lacing. Whiskyish, vanilla smell with ripe pit fruits and bitter hops. Medium - heavy body with a smooth mouthfeel. Great taste is of ripe pit fruits, sweet malts followed by a cloying alcohol hop bitterness to finish. One of my favorite American style Barleywines