Green Flash Barleywine

On tap at Blind Tiger in NYC. Pours very murky dark bronze with an off-white head. The aroma is very hopped up with dark citrus, but there is a very hefty thick malt background right behind it. The body is fairly thick and chewy with soft gentle carbonation. The flavor starts with thick woody / grapefruit hoppiness, and thick toasty caramel malt. The finish is cloying without the sweetness and a huge amount of hop resin coating the mouth. Very nice barleywine.

22 oz bottle, shared. Pours a cloudy light brown with a head that started out thick and fluffy but quickly dissipated to next-to-nothing. Aroma is caramel, toffee, slight chocolate, and citrus notes. Taste is the same, with a hoppiness that’s usually characteristic of a West Coast IPA. Remains sweet and smooth throughout, and is a very solid beer. It’s not in the same league as some of my favorite barleywines, but I enjoyed it.

22 oz. bottle, 2008 release, short blurb in the center of the label, sampled in a snifter glass. L: Cloudy appearance, light chocolate color with some orangey golden hues towards the bottom of the snifter glass. Inch high pale tan head of fluffy foam that quickly sank into a thin sudsy skim, not enough sticky lace to really comment on, mainly just a few splotchy mini-dots. S: The first smells I noticed was caramel toffee malts, candied oranges and white grapefruit pulp. Further whiffs bring out aromas of oily pine, leafy herbs with a touch of green wood, and sour citric estery alcohol. As it warms, a nice malt chocolaty scent wafts up to the nose. F&T: Light feeling moderate body with a mild citric acidity, softly crisp and creamy in the finish. In this young barleywine the hops are on top with a supple underlining maltiness. Plenty of hops tastes without much bitterness, the hops are oily slick and sap sticky as oppose to being overly bitter. Oranges, apricots, sappy pine, leafy herbs and dry stems, grapefruit pulp along with the oily peels of the fore mentioned grapefruit, this does have a pronounced San Diego hop taste. The malts are in a supporting role, providing a little sweetness to the sour citric hops. Malt flavors of toffee, caramelized sugar, weak coffee and cocoa, they try to contain the citric sourness, failing in the end. The alcohol is quite tamed, just a low grade citric fruity warmth in the back of the palate. This falls along the lines of your tradition southern California barleywine, tasty without being outstanding. To me, the most redeeming thing about this is that it has a lower price than the barleywines from AleSmith and Stone.

Nutty orange aroma with walnuts and hazelnuts. Opaque brown with a medium peach colored head. Fairly thick mouthfeel with walnut, licorice, wood, and candy notes. Very piney finish. There are nice flavors, but they aren’t good together.

Holy crap this is a hoppy barleywine! Amber colored with a thin white head. Tons of citrus flavor and aroma and the alcohol is extremely well hidden. West Coasters call this barleywine while East Coasters would call it Double IPA. Fanfuckingtastic either way.

22oz bottle. 2008. Initially, the aroma is quite hop-forward with lush apricot, pineapple and tangerine aromas. As the beer opens, the hops take a back seat to the malt. Toffee, charred caramel and pine resin notes assert themselves. Pours rich, dark mahogany/maroon with a dark, thick brownish white head leaving excellent lacing. Plenty of pine resin, tree bark, toffee, pineapple, grapefruit, a touch of booze, doughy malt. As with their other beers, a unique take on the style.

22 fl oz bottle. Pours slight cloudy and dark orange/amber with a lacing off-white and creamy head. Aroma is solid hops and malt, light alcohol note. Flavour is quite hoppy, light woody and with a mild liqourice like note. Warming alcohol finish with a solid hops bitterness yet with a persisting hops oily flavour. Solid barleywine that is a nice blend between IIPA and barley wine.7-4-7-4-15=3.7

As 2nd Anniversary Ale. 22 fl oz bottle. 3816/6000. Pours hazy and deep orange with a lacing tan head. Aroma dense hoppy too. Smooth and light woody flavour with a solid bitterness and smooth woody finish. Dry and smooth finish. 8-4-8-5-15=4.0

Mossy coloured, dense head; dark amber-brown beer. Caramel, toffee with a lot of C-hops, and some bananaester. Chocolate, roasted and bits of hopbitterness, some background sweetness, caramelly. Very well-bodied, slick. Not uninteresting but I’ve had better BW’s; maybe lacking a bit of complexity.