Lagunitas Olde GnarlyWine

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

Serve in Snifter

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2002. Pours more orange than red, nice translucent barleywine appearance. Blessed with a rush of white head made up of tiny white bubbles, yet the life span is very short. Aroma contains both hops and malts. A little bit more bitter than I like, but age could take care of that.

A nice aromatic barleywine. Scents of hops with slight fruitiness and mild malt. Flavor has solid hop bitterness which becomes more rounded and balanced by malt as one consumes.

UPDATED: MAR 23, 2003 Rating #1 (7 3 8 3 17) Tap @ Toronado Barley Wine Festival of the 1997 vintage. A cloudy light amber color. Very sweet with a light flavor, candy, apples, and caramel. Rating #2 (8 4 9 5 18) Tap of the 2000 vintage. A hazy mahogany and brown color. Full sweet malts, dark fruits, cherry, medicinal, and very smooth with just a bit of the vinous and biter bite on the finish. This coats the mouth in sweet molassas and fruits. A little wood in the aroma.

UPDATED: FEB 25, 2003 2002 edition: so anyway, I glued two glasses of these to my eyeballs and i walked around at night and i could see just fine..the aroma was creamy, malty like toffee and subtly spicy with hops..the mouthfeel was nice and creamy..bitterness comes through strong at the end..counteracting the nice creamy maltiness that greets the front of the tongue..malts are nice and toffeeish here, starting to get sticky but not too much, and the hoppy bitterness is nice too..nice nice nice, i tell yee

1997 vintage at (Toronado Barley Wine Festival 2003). Rich amber pour with no noticable head. Bitter and smokey contrasted with a strong caramel and toffee flavors. A bit acidic. The body opened up as it warmed and become much more smooth.

1999 vintage. Draught. Body is murky dark amber. Aroma is moderately malty (cookie, caramel), moderately hoppy (resin, grapefruit), with notes of sherry, apricot, and toffee. Flavor is moderately sweet, moderately acidic, lightly bitter. Finish is lightly sweet, moderately acidic, moderately bitter. Medium body, velvety texture, lively carbonation, moderately alcoholic. Oxidation made this a little less wonderful than I'd hoped, but the alternative in a fresh example is reportedly an enormous west coast hop aroma, so I'd probably take this instead anyway.

2002 bottle. Very sweet apple and citrus aroma. The flavor was very sweet with hints of alcohol and of course hops bitterness. Very slick, oily feel. Pretty orange color with a thick white head. Extremely palatable Barley Wine!

Draft 1999 vintage. Could taste the aging. Thick and syrupy, not unlike a Thomas Hardy's in a way. I don't know what a fresh bottled one would be like, but this is very good stuff.

UPDATED: NOV 30, 2003 I really liked this beer. 9.7% kicks ass, and it is well masked. Surprisingly sweet taste. Took awhile to warm up to, but I can say I will soon have another. Rerate 10/02: Great beer. Would be an IPA if it wasn't for the sweetness. Loaded with hops aroma and taste. Great beer, great brewery.(had it off tap this time). ReRate 2003: Yes, this is one of the finest Lagunitas beers I've had. Very well done.

UPDATED: FEB 16, 2003 Smallish one finger head after a fairly rough pour into a Gulden Draak goblet, cloudy dark amber color, nice toasty malt and citric hop aroma, thick and full bodied, roasted malt flavors and fairly strong hop bitterness. This is definitely an American Barley Wine based on the bitterness and the type of hops used. I would prefer a little less cloudiness. Regardless, this is a damn good beer.

Re-rate: On tap at the 2003 Toronado Barleywine Festival: Wonderfully blended. Vanilla. Woody. Great malt flavor. Almost no hop presence. Nice though!