Heavy Seas Mutiny Fleet Below Decks Bourbon Oak

Brewed by Heavy Seas Brewing Company
Style: Barley Wine
Baltimore, Maryland USA

Serve in Snifter

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Bottle. Heavy malt aromas of caramel and milk chocolate, moderate hop note of cooked orange, light earth for the yeast, with background notes of brown sugar, bourbon and alcohol. Head is small, frothy, off-white with some pretty good slippery lacing and is mostly diminishing. Color is dark murky brown. Flavor starts heavily sweet and lightly acidic, then the short finish is moderately bittersweet and lightly acidic. Palate is medium to full, creamy with a soft carbonation and finishes heavily alcoholic with a strong whiskey and coffee aftertaste. This beer really smells like a chocolate candy bar. Maybe a little to sweet and a touch watery in the end, but this is still a stand up Barley Wine.

UPDATED: JUL 4, 2010 Bottle. Pours clear red brown with a slim pale white head. This is a light barley wine. Light nose with vanilla, creme brule, and dry oak. Light flavor with a bit of a cherry cough character, abd a long slow burn. Light body, and easy to drink. All of the lightness is not to say that this isn’t a good beer. Its tasty. Just not nearly as good as some of the best.

Reddish brown with a thin skim of tan head. Aroma is slightly bourbony, with not much else going on. Taste reminds me of a chocolate cola product, with a mineral remnant into the finish. None of the big nasty oxidized flavors of the cabernet variant, but not much bourbon either. $7/22oz

2010 bottle. Pours a deep amberish-brown color with a thin head on top. Not much in the way of lacing. Lots of caramel show in the aroma that’s followed by some raisin and a little bourbon. The bourbon is not as evident as expected. This is very smooth going down with a gentle warmth to it. There’s a little more bourbon in the flavor but still not a lot with wood, caramel, and plum notes. Perhaps a touch of vanilla too. This really does come across as a very basic barrel-aged barleywine. No thrills here, the bourbon seems diluted to the point it almost seems like a standard non barrel-aged barleywine, but it’s still plenty enjoyable.

Nose is pretty blase standard bourbon barleywine, taste is fantastic, deep caramel base, shit ton of vanilla and oak, hint of sweet bourbon, they really are magicians with barrels.

22 oz. bottle from Mac’s on West Peachtree. Fuck, it’s hot outside! This probably isn’t what you would drink on a 90+ degree day. Dark brown color with an amber/slightly ruby hue. There is a nice head sitting on top; it has the perfect height to it. We’re lookin’ good here, Chuck. The nose is of strong vanilla and sugar. Bourbon qualities are present and pungent. A slight malt sweetness pops through, but the aroma doesn’t have that many dimensions to it. Ah...there seems to a be a bit of a presence from the oak popping through. Fairly nice aroma, but nothing mind shattering. This beer has a nice creamy texture. The creamy texture is great because it allows the beer to roll across the taste buds. Vanilla, sugar, booze, and bourbon are hitting my taste buds. The ethanol is a bit intrusive, and warms the back of the throat a bit too much. It does have a skull and crossbones on the front, so who said this was going to be fucking nice? Not much comes through in terms of beer. I’m getting a slight bitterness, but, for me, this seems like an excuse to get brownie points from us beer enthusiasts by putting a mediocre barley wine in a barrel and calling it a day. I would like to have a barrel-aged beer that provides complimentary flavors i.e., the barley wine compliments the bourbon barrel, and vice-versa. Traces of barley wine flavors poking through, but not enough for me.

Cask at aPORKalypse at alewife. Deep brown color. Sweet. Bourbon taste. Smokey with a hint of syrup. Very good ---Rated via Beer Buddy for iPhone

On cask at rustico Arlington. Pours a dark reddish brown with a thin off white head. Bourbon and vanilla nose. Sweet and boozy with luscious dark cherry, raisin and toffee notes. Warming alcohol finish. A winner for a cold winter day.

It’s time! Well, it looks just like a barley wine. That’s a good sign. There’s a slight release from opacity, with a dark amber colored body and an off-white head. The aroma is not what you’d normally expect form a barley wine, though. It seems very much of dark caramel malts in the aroma – so much so that it almost smells like tobacco. The flavor is somewhat syrupy, thick, and herbal. Wow, it’s unique. It feels like an imperial IPA in the mouth, but smooth and light from the oak aging. It finishes much stronger than an imperial IPA, though, high in alcohol, slightly malty, and with a definite hop presence that’s well-infused with that alcohol. I love it. The bourbon is gentle, but defines much of the beer’s character. Why do I want to watch TrueBlood?

Pours a dark brown with a light tan head. Has a matly aroma of caramel and some oakish and earthy undertones. Upfront is a wine like flavor with caramel and spice. Finishes with a more chocoate and coffee base to the flavor.