Magic Hat Chaotic Chemistry

Brewed by Magic Hat Brewing Company
Style: Barley Wine
South Burlington, Vermont USA

Medium head comes with a vigorous pouring. The body is a lighter amber. Aroma of malt, strawberries, with hints of honey, vanilla and maple. The taste has plenty of alcoholic booze. Also some wheat bread, wood and vanilla cherries. A thin mouthfeel with a dry finish. One of my more disspointing barley wines. Thanks milkmandan.

Smooth, caramel, malty aroma is balanced by huge herbal, floral, pine, orange hops with a fair bit of alcohol noteable also. Fairly clear, burnished copper coloured with thin white head that reduces immediately to ring. Almost liquor-like in the langurous pour. Mellow and thick malty flavour with whisky and oak barrel casks very apparent. Body feels a touch thin despite the maltiness of the flavour. Certainly one I plan to revisit on occasion. Bottle enjoyed with beerhugger, CapFlu, DumDum, muzzlehatch, radiomgb and Rastacouere.

Bottle provided by Silphium for the Labor Day gathering, #634, batch #3:

Muddy brown hue with a small head and good lace. The nose detected a big bourbon nature with vanilla and oak overtones. Some non-aromatic pipe tobacco, clove, fig and fruity grapes also noted. The taste starts quite fruity and has a sharp bite with a nice lush vanilla and syrupy background, cream and berry. A spicy, liquorice, and shocking bitter finish. The mouth feel is oily and lush with a big alcohol kick, very warming and even a touch astrengent. This is a bit rough but has some nice complexity, I sort of dig it.

Thanks to JPDIPSO for the opportunity! Bottled 1/1/04. Poured a medium caramel with a short off-white head. Smooth caramel and toffee malts paired with some rum-soaked raisins and smoke in the delectable nose. Flavor lost some depth to the extreme length in the barrels, unfortunately... dark berries, toffee, and dried fruits remain, but the rest is lost to bourbon and other hot alcohols. OK on the palate... but the carbonation was a tad low and the alcohol really took off. Very gracious for the opportunity! Thanks, John.

Best part of this beer is the bottle. I didn’t know what to expect from this beer. I knew nothing about it going in and after seeing the bottle was not as happy. Poured a brownish-amber color. Fruity with the sweeter citrus fruits and unbalanced alcohol. Biggest problem with the beer was that it was pretty tart. Too tart. Maybe if I expected it but just to hit me the way it did and then mixed with alcohol hurt me. Maybe one day I will try it again to see if it was just the one bottle.

On tap at Magic Hat Night at American Flatbread. Special batch? It tasted youngish barleywine, it masked the alcohol. The baley was in the smell. A noticeable head, and some lace. Dark, pretty.

Quiet nice and complex barley wine . This babe was waiting for me to try for quiet time . Was not disappointed .Thanks Muzzelhatch .

Bottle in a trade bottled 1/1/04 Batch 2 #418, a second bottle from EDA, and on draft at capones and EBF. Pours an orange amber body with a thin white head. Very complex and alcohol latent. Bourbon, vanilla, dark citrus fruit and everything screams soaked in bourbon. Im a fan.