Marin Old Dipsea Barleywine Bourbon Barrel (Brett)

Brewed by Marin Brewing Company
Style: Barley Wine
Larkspur, California USA

Serve in Snifter

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Bottled. A hazy dark amber beer with a thin orangey head. The aroma has notes of alcohol, brettanomyces, malt, and caramel. The flavor is sweet with notes of bourbon, wood, alcohol, malt, caramel, and brettanomyces, leading to a dry finish.

Bottle at Papsø. Pours hazy deep amber with a creamy off white head. The aroma is dry brett, sweet caramel, light roast, dark fruit and bread. The flavour is sweet malty, bread, brett, fruit and sweet caramel. Long dark fruity finish.

Bottle 65 cl. Courtesy of wavers1. Pours a hazy amber with a small off-white head. Tart, Bretty aroma with some sweet underlying overripe plums. Solid body, sweet plummy, sweet vanilla woodish, quite a lot of Bourbon. No real bitterness. Lovely interplay between the Brett, the Bourbon and the booze. 170611

rich bretty notes, dry horseblanket with a layer of pineapple, some apricot. clear mocha in the glass. lots of fruit on the palate, juicy with more apricot and some banana. creamy caramel, very complex

Nose is funky sour green apple bourbon barrel, fruity candy notes. Dark auburn pour, decent ring of foam and lace. Green apple, dark fruit, bourbon, wood, funky brett. Nice way to disguise an infected batch - w brett. Well its nice, the brett dries, adds interesting cartb.

Clear cola brown with slight foamy tan head. Tart cherry, wood, funky wool, molasses, brown sugar. Creamy carbonation, medium to heavier feel. Cherry, wet oak, brown sugar, cinnamon, cola, syrupy.

Dark brown pour. Aroma is molasses, chocolate, bretty horsiness with a bit of tropical fruit. I did not expect to like this, but I thought it was great. Flavor is rich caramel and dried fruits with some light chocolate dust and some brett dryness, and a touch of bretty twang on the finish. The brett melds pretty well with the barleywine and give it an added fruit character thats really interesting. Not overpowering, I kept going back for more. Yum

Bottle provided by Agentzero, drank from a perfect pint glass...Medium to dark brown pour, lots of amber though. The head is ok, not much to talk about...The nose is caramel, brown sugar, oak and brett. The brett doesn’t add anything to this, seems too forced...The taste is not that good, molasses, burnt sugar and brett. Alex kept saying Dr. Pepper, I get that in terms of the sweet notes. Reminds me of Jackie O’s captain barley heart, this is just not as successfully done. Leave the brett out of barleywines, at this one, because it doesn’t enhance the experience. Skip.

A: The beer pours an opaque mahogany color with almost no head whatsoever. Just some tan foam that forms with the vigor of the pour. S: Butter? Yes, definitely butter on the nose with some sweet vanilla and butterscotch. Some toffee, bourbon, and oak are there and there are some undertones of tart fruits, specifically sour cherries. T: The tart fruit flavors are a bit more noticeable here on the palate. Seems to be mostly sour cherries and plums for the most part. Definitely some caramel and toffee with less butter than was evident on the aroma. Certain some bourbon, vanilla, and oak, too. M: The body is medium with a low to moderate carbonation and an alcoholic warmth/burn. D: Too bad this beer has gone down this road because the "regular" bourbon barrel aged one is quite good. Seems that the bugs that were "added" to this beer have really begun to take over.

Poured into a snifter. Big thanks to psiweaver for a chance to try this. I think I’m reviewing the correct one. It has the same "2009 Bourbon Barrel Aged for Ten Months" sticker as the pic. 3.5 A: Super dark brown color. Nearly black. One and a half fingers of fizzy beige head that falls quickly and doesn’t leave any lacing. 4.0 S: Yep, this is the brett one. That was easy enough to figure out. Lots of funk in there and also some fairly assertive acetic acid. Perhaps the brett brought a few friends along as I’ve never had this much acid from brett alone. Brett is horsey and barnyard and with the bourbon there is leather, oak, and vanilla. I can’t smell much of the underlying barleywine except for some plum and raisin fruitiness. The funk and bourbon are the main attraction here. As the beer warms a bit, caramel and toffee maltiness comes out as well as stronger bourbon aroma. 5.0 T: Wow. I’m really amazed at how well this beer comes together in the taste. I thought it would be a mess, but it’s anything but. Somehow the brett, bourbon, and barleywine form a holy union of deliciousness. Barnyard funk is a perfect complement to the leather, oak, and vanilla bourbon. I never would have guess that to be the case. The acetic acid in the nose is hard to come by in the taste and I think it’s absence is for the best. The barleywine gets to shine alongside the bourbon and funk this time. Rich toffee and caramel. Plum, raisin, currant, and perhaps even some black cherry. Booze is barely noticeable, but it’s presence is well received. 4.5 M: Medium body. Good moderate carbonation. Very creamy and very smooth. No problems here. 5.0 D: This is one hell of a beer. There’s so much right with nothing wrong. Unlike a lot of bourbon barrel brews, the bourbon in this is complementary and doesn’t steal the show. The addition of funk played out better than I ever could have imagined. Serving type: bottle Reviewed on: 09-04-2010 04:40:11