Mad River John Barleycorn

Brewed by Mad River Brewery
Style: Barley Wine
Blue Lake, California USA

Serve in Snifter

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UPDATED: DEC 8, 2003 Super Bowl Beer! Hazy amber color with an orange tint. No head to speak of. Malty, sweet aroma... fruity and lightly perfumey. Malty, alcoholic and sweet up front. Nicely balanced, pungent (buttermilk) and moderately bitter on the backside with plenty of alcohol. Full-bodied with an oily mouthfeel and lively carbonation. Long, astringent, bitter-sweet, slightly dry finish.

Medium brown color. Small head. Aroma is malty and slightly sweet. A medium bodied barley wine. A touch of grapefruit is balanced by a slight maltyness. This is a mild flavored barley wine, kind of a nice change of pace from the big in-your-face Barley wine so typical of the west coast. Well balanced. Very drinkable. Would improve with some aging. 9% alcohol not very noticeable. Very smooth. Mouthfeel is full and round. Finish is clean and smooth. Aftertaste is slightly bitter.

candy aroma, medium body, candyish and super bitter, no alcohol presence comes through

Bottled - 2000 vintage sampled in Decmber 2002. Amber colur, no head. Grapefruity hop aroma. Malty, thick, fruity and syrupy. Clean, bold, filling mouthfeel and lingering hop bitterness. If there is such a thing as a middle-of-the-road in barleywines this one comes close.

Sweet sweet sweet. Im not going to get to critical on this one. This barleyWine is waaaaaaaay too young. Ill let one sit in the basement for about 2 years than re-rate.

2001 Bottle: Smells like grapes, looks like a dark amber ale. Has a good malty mouthfeel with a very slight hop bitterness. The finish is malty sweet, very grape like. Slightly alcoholic taste creeps in. I like this one a lot, I think it should be rated higher than it is.

UPDATED: FEB 11, 2005 (2002 version, sampled 2/11/05) Small beige head atop a clear copper body. Aroma is medium sweet, grapefruit, berry, orange. Taste is medium sweet, and ... and nothing. There is a bit of maltiness, light grapefruit, vinous, but it really is a mild flavor. In a barleywine, this is unprecedented. Medium-full body. Clearly this beer does not age well, in fact it ages quite poorly. For the sake of decency, however, I will keep the bulk of my old rating and make sure I never drink an old one of these again. (6/3/3/3/7). (2001 version, sampled 8/1/02) Sweet berry aroma. Berry malty flavor, cut by healthy swath of alcohol. Sticky sweet mouthfeel, but bitterness creeps in at the back of the palate. (6/3/6/4/12)

Not a shabby barleywine, but not hardly the best. Good balance here with generous hops to rival the malt content. Astringent grapefruit along with some dark fruit in the aroma. Initial taste is peppery and fades into a nice hop flavor and a rounded finish. Fairly non-descript and unmemorable as far as flavor and aroma goes, but there are no problems. Not too bad, but it won’t be a regular.

Delicious barleywine, sweet malty flavor complemented with nice hops flavor, winy flavor and slight alcohol aroma very warming!

Odd. Scent is very floral and malty. The malts in the flavor are astringent and harsh. Strong wine and port flavors, very warming, but could probably do with a couple of years worth of aging to really balance out.