Lagunitas Olde Gnarly Wine

Brewed by Lagunitas Brewing Company
Style: Barley Wine
Petaluma, California USA

"Twenty ’Aught-8’ Bottle’. Burnt orange beer with an initial cover that dies away quickly. The aroma is orange-soapy, but hints at the high gravity. Once you sip this, there’s no doubt that there’s an alcohol kick lingering here ... this goes down your gullet burning like heated oil. Once you get past that, you start to detect the flavors of rich orange, grape, and smooth sugary malt. Beautiful brew. (#3443, 5/1/2008)

Amber with touches of ruby and a thin white head. Big malty nose. Flavor is sweet and malty with a rather big hop presence for a barley wine. Nicely balanced, though. Potent, but smooth and refined. Nice.

Bomber shared with Lee and Aaron. Pours amber red with a thin white head. Aroma is big and malty with a huge hop nose. Powerful malty taste with tons hops trying to balance it all out. Hops are much more bitter than I expected, but still a very smooth barley wine. Finishes with a big bitter hop finish.

Soft pine and floral nose, some fruity cinnamon in there too. Deep copper, clear, with a frothy medium head that lasted a long time--nice lacing too. Deep sweet malt, with a smooth transition into hop bitterness--excellent balance! Full body, tight carbonation, the finish lasts forever. Very well put together beer, possibly the best Barley Wine I can remember tasting.

Very pleasant draught. Lots of fruity flavor and piney flavors - reminded me of a FFF brew. Dark red pour with decent mouthfeel.

Re-rate 12/2/09. Aged about a year and a half. Hazy brown color with a thin tan head. A plum, caramel and toffee aroma with grapefruit coming through after a few whiffs. A pretty well-balanced drinking barleywine. A bit sweet with toffee and caramel (tilting more towards toffee) with some hop bitterness but the aging has mellowed this. There’s also quite a bit of brown sugar sweetness to this. Pretty solid again but yet another American Barleywine I prefer when the hops are fresh. Original Rating: Pours a brown reddish color with a nice fairly thick off white head. Piney hops, tangy fruits and balanced nicely with some caramel malts. A little sugary with some alcohol showing but not a lot. A pretty smooth and easy drinking barleywine but with enough complexity. This is solid. An excellent price for what you get too... about half the price as some others I’ve had recently. Recommended!

Bottle. I dunno what I was thinking, but I wasn’t expecting much from this one... I thought it might be an overhoped attempt at another high ABV Lagunitas offering. Surprise! Color is that lovely tawny brown with a little bit of a head that leaves a nice film on the surface with a few soapy-looking bubbles here and there. Aromas are pineapple and sweet and sticky malt, but the flavor is where this really comes into its own. Sweet candi and caramel malts intermingle with fruits like prune, dates, figs and apricots and yield to a bit of a pine and pineapple hops finish. Lovely.

bomber. a very solid barley wine.... did not blow me away, but solid nonetheless. And at a price of $3.50 / bomber you really can’t beat it... obviously not as good as the top BW’s out there - but they will cost you 4x as much / bottle. pours a deep red / amber with very little head. some spice and sweet malts in the aroma. medium hop presence from the start to finish - but balances the malts extremely well. sweet finish - the sugars really shine through. Overall a solid BW that drinks very well and almost too easily... will knock you on your butt with its near 10% abv.... go buy some when its out.