Ithaca Excelsior! Old Habit

Brewed by Ithaca Beer Company
Style: Barley Wine
Ithaca, New York USA

Aroma is nice, but wierdly unexpected. The aroma is tart fruit, oak. The appearance is a lovely hazy reddish brown, slight particulate matter, and a huge fluffy tan head. This bottle gushed when I opened it. The flavor is oak, tart fruit, whiskey, rye bread, earthy. Strange, but very interesting. The finish is earthy, oak, a little sour. Medium to medium/thick body, a little oily. Unexpected for a barley wine, and actually very good.

Flossmoor Station RB tasting 2010. Pours a reddish clear orange with a great fluffy frothy head. Weird oxidation character, caramel, brown sugar, odd soapy phenolic character. Flavor is the same, tannic, lightly fruity, medicinal, cherry, brown sugar, off spicing, very strange beer. Thin with corse carbonation.

Bottle courtesy of Greg at Birreria Paradiso - thanks Greg! Medium murky brown color with a thin white head that settles quickly and leaves good lacing. Aroma of oak and whisky. Flavor has lots of malt and caramel, wood and earth, and a background of light smoke. Whisky is in the aroma where it belongs, but doesn’t overpower the taste. Nice.

Bottle thanks to Shawn at Chicago RB tasting. Pour is hazy dark brown/ red with a thin tan head. Aroma is caramel malt, light wood, and rye with some fruity overtones of raspberry, blueberry, and grape. Smells great. Flavor is lightly tart and sweet with toffee and caramel. Not too heavy, at least not at this point in the day. Solid stuff.

Bottle from j12601 and shared at ratebeer chicago gathering. Pours a hazy mahagony with a small beige head. notes of caramel, big rye note, peat, whiskey barrel. Also has a red grape or some other fruit note. Tasty. Kind of drunk by this point- but I enjoyed this!

750 ml poured a very dark brownish amber, near opaque, a tannish white head that laces ok. Aromas are a bit soured, tannins and a touch of booziness, this is very nice. Initial is warming, a bit soapy and boozy, with a nice warming wuality, a bit oaky, with caramel and toffee, a nice warming feel with oak, vanilla, and a touch of tartness. A bit boozy, not real heavy, fainrly lively carboination and medium body. This is a decent beer, a bit different, oaked well, but ok, with copious rye infleunce

Pours hazy brown. Beautiful nose. Subtle but present whiskey, toasted grains, dark fruits, plum and prune, floral hops, fresh wood. Flavor is raisin, prune, vanilla, booze, warming alcohol, dark fruits, hints of cherry and nuts, roasted malt and sweet sugary caramel. Very nice!

Pour is dark brown with a beige head. Aroma of booze, wood and caramel... maybe a bit of fruit. Flavor is too boozy for me. Good palate and drinkable. One dimensional, but not bad at all.