Mad River John Barleycorn

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

Serve in Snifter

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Aroma is deep, malty, and toasty. Pours clear dark orange with a creamy head. Deeply flavored with strong malt aftertaste, goes down thick and creamy.

2011 vintage, cellar temp. Incredible coca notes with sweet fruits and caramel. Spicy citrus with a milk chocolate flavor, ends with a sweet malt finish. One of my personal favorites; age worthy and always complex.

On tap at Taps in Petaluma. Pours a reddy dark brown color. Strong malt and a bit of a harsh taste with it.

Location: Draft at Blind Tiger, 4/8/13

Aroma: The nose is heavy malty, sweet, a bit fruity, and with some boozy notes as well
Appearance: It pours a dark reddish-brown color with a beige head and some light lace
Flavor: The taste is also plus sweet/malty with plenty of booze, similar to nose
Palate: The body is medium-full, it is fairly thick on the mouth, and finishes a bit warming
Overall Impression: This wasn’t a favorite for me. It isn’t a bad beer, but it certainly isn’t a standout Barley Wine. Decent describes this one pretty well.

I couldn’t tell if I was pouring beer into a pint glass or oil into my car’s engine. Pours a murky deep amber color with a big, fat, fluffy, light tan head. The head kept growing even after I’d finished my pour. I was worried I’d gotten too aggressive and that my desk next to my keyboard was going to be sticky for a while. Toffee, brown sugar, and cinnamon rolls on the nose. A thick, slick liquid swells in your mouth with the first pull. A lot of sweet stuff in there. Not enough alcohol flavor or warmth to account for the 11% ABV. There is a bit of tartness that cuts the sweet explosion. The tartness, mind you, is the same you’d get from a sweet cherry sucker and not from an unripe banana or a grapefruit. My only criticism is that it finishes a little too quickly. Once it does finish, there’s a bit of bitter alcohol that remains on the tongue. Not bad though.

10.8% ABV, vintage unknown. Pours muddy light brown with a super tiny ring of fizz. Smells like caramel, citrus, and zesty. Taste is cloyingly sweet with a strange spice-like character. Medium-to-full bodied with a slick, wet texture and virtually no mouth-carbonation, Mad River John Barleycorn finishes with an excess sweetness tingle across the tongue.

2011 bottle vintage. Average barley wine here. Didn’t have the awe inspiring booze and malt aspects.

Bottle. 2004 vintage. Notes from tasting session. Light brown. Very malty and sweet.This might be better in about two year.

Head: off white, creamy, medium size
Colour: very dark redish brown, a bit like a rodenbach but darker
Smell: boozey, caramel, candy sirup, a slight touch of banana, quite herbal and a touch of anise
Taste: start is quite bitter and herbal, a little touch of chemical alcohol, not that much sweetness to be honest ( what i do expect in a barley wine ), not too much else going around, not bad but certainly not exciting in my eyes, but well , i tried ! and that’s the only way to know if you like a beer or not :-)

Celebrating the harvest of 2007. Pours incredibly cloudy. Little to no head like would be expected from a 5 year old beer. Very malty, rich, almost creamy. A bit of citrus on the back end. Very enjoyable.