Green Flash Barleywine

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

Man, this is easily the hardest beer I’ve ever had to rate. Starts out looking ok. Has a very interesting deep red pour with a one finger creamy tan head. Then I smell it and everything goes to pieces. I cannot even describe the flavor or aroma that I detected. It was completely dominant in every aspect and only allowed some sweetness to come through. Easily one of the most undrinkable beers I’ve had. The flavor/aroma was completely indescribable, phenolic maybe. I shared it with two other people and neither of them found it as distasteful as I did. Maybe it was a bad bottle and maybe it is a personal thing.

Pours a clear dark brown with chestnut brown hues. Aroma of caramel,prunes and raisins. Flavor is malty with burnt caramel,citrus and pine notes

650 ml, 2008 vintage. Clear ruby-copper with a small lasting cap of foam. Aroma of earthy dried herbs, maple, caramel, nuts and chocolate. Flavor is similar but tilted more to the dry herbs and toasted nut than the sweeter aroma indicated. Some oak and a lot of peppery hops in the finish. There is a unique smell (and more so a flavor) in this one that seems almost like toasted sesame oil, soy sauce or something of the sort - a nutty-grainy-bitter hop-green herb combo that is quite a nice counter to all the sweet malt. Medium-heavy body finishes long and hoppy-dry, and is lightly carbonated

Bottle sampled with Beerded_one. Pours mohogany with a compact light tan head. Aroma of raisins, caramel malt, toffee, and hops. The flavor is caramel, fruit, citrus, and piney hops. Good brew.

Dark dense brown appearance, thick creamy head formation. Rich malty aroma, caramel with spicy pine hops. Thickish rich palate, sweet caramel, chocolate, hazelnut with an emphatic grapefruit bitterness that only gets subdued by the richness of the malts. Delicious stuff, but very much a la Double Bastard.

Big hoppy So-Cal-type barley wine. Strong pine and grapefruit nose. Caramel roastiness pinning the hop excess down somewhat. The alcohol is just way over-the-top, especially as it warms. That’s all I could taste after a while. Fairly simple straightforward drink.

22oz Bottle. Pungent glowing nose fresh with pineapple, tropic fruit and some lychee. I can’t tell if that’s coming from the malts, the yeast or the hops. Probably a combination. Pours a hazed ruddy-tan with a light creamy head. Flavor is fresh and distinctly Green Flash. A house yeast marries with a distinct combination of hops, glowing fruit alcohols and a backbone of malt. Balanced. Soft and relatively complex. Interestingly enough there wasn’t quite the hard biting edge of hop bitterness I expected to balance the really juicy fresh tropical fruit flavor. I kind of like that. Fruity is the word here. Nice. Thanks Dale and Martin!

dark honey and melted suager aromas .. . toffee and chocolate with dark fruit flavors .. . big head with amicable lacing .. . i have some aging, fresh was a treat, good assertive hop presence, after afew months, pretty dramatic change in such a short time... notes of wood and slight brandy notes.. i’ll give it another 6 months and revisit..