Green Flash Barleywine

Brewed by Green Flash Brewing Co.
Style: Barley Wine
Vista, California USA

Bottle from ckbschubert. Or IrishBoy, depending on who you ask. Had this in a blind tasting against Southern Tier Back Burner and Great Divide Old Ruffian. This won. Pours with a fantastic, firm head for a barleywine. Mellow, boozy, tequila and whiskey notes in the aroma. Very little alcohol burn. Slightly chewy rye in the flavor, big and bold but refined. Chocolate malt and caramel. Very tasty, but not world class.

Pours a cranberry brown, with glorious bubbles foaming into a thick, buttery-brown frothy head. Lots of lacing. Smells of over ripe oranges, tangy, brown sugar, yeast. Taste is pleasant, rich, full of malt, toffee, caramel, and more ripe oranges and sun-burnt raisins. Aftertaste burns a little from the 10% alcohol

This was quite good. Deep amber/umber with a rich and creamy beige head. The promised caramel and hops were there in the nose, along with fruit and dough. Medium-full body with gentle carbonation. The taste was appealing but must say that this seemed to lean more towards an imperial IPA than a barleywine. Still, a good drink.

Fresh 22oz bottle. Pours a brown amber with a decent white head. Malty aroma with a sizeable amount of hops. Sweet flavor carmel malt, some fruitness. Finsih a bit sticky with some bitterness. a very solid barleuwine from somewhere i didn’t expect it.

Sampled in a 22 oz bottle. Very rich dark color and very strong hops in taste. Alcohol is smooth for a 10% beer and pour releases a very smooth fresh aroma.

Bottle (650ml). Pours a really nice looking ruby-amber with a large lasting bubbly off-white head. Nice malty, fruity aroma with plenty of hops along with caramel and brown sugar. Sweet flavour of caramel malt, lots of fruit and quite hoppy along with some alcohol and a long bitter finish. I’d probably bump the taste up a point with some aging if it mellowed the alcohol a little. Medium bodied. I really enjoyed this, I easily drank the whole bomber.

22. Thanks, Pitonka! Pours a deep murky mahogany with a gargantuan, sudsy, moussy tan head. The head even has strata of shades of tan within it. Pretty much looks like perfect waffle batter. Nice big forward hop nose: piney notes atop earthy leafy business. Smells ravishing. Attack is very drinkable for a barleywine; body’s borderline medium-sized, carb is pleasant and soft, and flavors are well restrained. The mid-palate shows a nice blend of earth, leaf, tobacco, husk, caramel--all the good stuff you’d expect from a well-made new world barleywine that’s not sitting in its own sugar. But the finish shows some nasty aluminum...regrettable, that oxidation note creeping in. The numbers only show a total .2 subtracted for it, but it’s still quite a shame.

Bottle: Pours a deep copper color with a khaki head. aroma, earthy and piny hops, caramel and molasses. Flavor, caramel, brown sugar, earthy/piny bitterness, some toffee as well. Very nice beer.