Left Hand Oak Aged Widdershins

Bottle. Heavy malt aroma of caramel and nutty, moderate notes of perfume and leather for the hops and yeast, with raisin, date, brown sugar and smokey in the background. Head is creamy, slightly off white with good lacing and is mostly lasting. Color is hazy orange/brown. Flavor is moderately sweet and lightly acidic to start, and finishes lightly acidic and bitter. Palate is medium, oily, and has a soft to lively carbonantion. It finishes a little astringent. A nice barley wine with a surprising smokiness to it.

Courtesy dragonstout. Pours a hazy copper color with a foamy, beige head that settles quickly. The aroma shows notes of dark fruit, caramel, earthy hops, and some oaky vanilla. The flavor is much the same with the vanilla and oak pushing forward with some caramel sweetness and citrus fruit. Some bitter hops tries to push through but the oak seems to wash away all the flavors. Medium-full bodied with a smooth mouthfeel that is slightly warming with a long, sweet finish. This had a nice sweet flavor, but the oak seemed to dominate everything. A little less oak would have done well.

courtesy of Per Forsgren - pours a cloudy dark red-amber colour, very foamy beige head; correct lacing; very hoppy and complex aroma showing notes of apples, wood and caramel; sweet and full-bodied, a bit oily, a powerful bitterness soon appears leading to a long woody and caramelish finish where the fruity tones stay in the background - very good

25 oz bottle, via FlacoAlto. Pours a clear dark copper body with a one finger fizzy beige head the fell to a thin covering. The nose is showing lots of sweet toffee malt with a hefty backbone of raw oak tannins. A good deal of alcohol, and some light resiny hops. The flavor is not as sweet as I expected, there’s more of a dry brittle toffee flavor with a big oaky tannic finish. A lot of alcohol shows through in both the flavor and the feel of this. The oak is actually pretty intense, it’s a good thing that they only oak aged 50% of this because if it was all oaked this might be like chewing on a 2x4. There’s a bit of resiny hops coming in on the finish trying to keep the toffee in check. Mouthfeel is medium to full bodied with a slightly sticky texture and too much fizzy carbonation. I wish my glass had one of those nucleation etches in the bottom to draw some of the carbonation out. I’m going to have to swirl the hell out of this to calm it down. Overall I thought that this was OK, but the oak really got a bit tiring by the time I finished the first glass.

Bottle, thanks to WeeHeavySD for sharing. Pours a cloudy brownish-amber with a small white head. Sweet, herbal aroma of smoky malt. Taste is sweet and sharp, of smoke and oak. Lingering smoky wood taste. Nice and tasty.