New Holland Existential Hopwine

22 oz bottle. Pours copper with a large off white creamy head. The head fades away quickly leaving small film on top of the beer. The lacing sticks around from top to bottom of the glass. The aroma is all hops, grapefruit and pine, the aroma also smells oaky. Takeing the first drink, it does have a nice caramel malt to it, the hops are pretty strong but not as heavy as you would expect by the aroma. They are citrusy hops, grapefruit, orange and a little pine. It is also quite sweet like brown sugar. The initial flavor is moderatly sweet with moderate bitterness. In the finish it isnt quite as sweet, but the bitterness comes in, the duration of the finish is long. The body is full with a oily and creamy texture and soft carbonation. There is a slight alcohol burn in the end too. Overall I liked this one quite a bit, I had this on tap at the brewery quite a few times and it is nice that they finally bottled it up so you can buy it. It is a very well balanced beer between the malt and the hops.

The aroma on this one is a quickly fading pine scent of hops. It pours a clear reddish amber, with a thin white head, that leaves behind great lacing. The flavor is a a strong pine and citrus taste, with a caramel flavor hiding in the middle. It has a nice thick oily palate, and a long bitter finish.

Bottle: Beautiful reddish orange color with a decent tan head...good lacing. Aroma has notes of orange rind, peaches and mangoes along with hints of caramel malt and floral hops. The hops seemed to have died down a bit since the first time I tried this, but it doesn’t deter from the great brew that it ultimately is now. Thick, sticky mouth feel leads to flavors of candied sugar, caramel, dark malts and sweet, sticky hops. Good shit right here.

Bottle, and a pretty one at that. Fruity hop aroma; more fruity than hop, like an APA. Beautiful, hazy amber with avg.-sized off-white head. Nice lace. Rich, high alcohol brew. I should have gotten another bottle. Excellent. Before I realized this was a barleywine, I thought it tasted barleywinish. Very nice and smooth. An easy drinking sipper. Underrated, although I would agree that perhaps it doesn’t deserve to be super high in style percentile.

A copper colored beer with a white head. An orange, pine, vanilla, and alcohol filled aroma. The malt and hops balance out nicely in this one. Its sweet up front with some bitterness in the end. The flavor consists of pine, oranges, vanilla, and alcohol notes. Overall this was a very good one.

Bottle. Pour is a deep coppery amber with lots of translucence and a little bit of a head that seems to leave the promise of a slightly oily texture. Aromas are sweet caramel, pine hops and a touch of grapefruit and pineapple. Maybe a hint of white grape juice as well. Aromas are a little more subtle than I expected, but fairly complex and so far this has captured my interest. Mouthfeel is definitely a little on the oily/syrupy side of things and flavor is well described as a hybrid of barley wine and strong IPA. On the barley wine side of the spectrum, the thick mouthfeel, sweet caramel malt that boarders on cloying, but is held well in check with the presence of lots of hops. On the IPA side of the coin, there is a piney finish that is brought on by strong hopping and finishes out the beer exceptionally well. The alcohol is there and there’s not a lot of effort to hide it, but it comes off more as a warmth on the way down that matches some of the better barley wines rather than an in your face astringent character like some of the more souped up IPA’s bring to the table. My only dissappointment with this one is my timing. I think that I would have enjoyed this even more as the snow was flying this past January, rather than at the brink of summer here, but it is still a wonderfully balanced brew that is one of my favorites.

Re-Rate. Fresh 2008 bottle. Same as before but with nice subtle citrus and flower hops. Flavor is still wonderful and sticky sweet but with a little orange candy. Full bodied and oily flat. Very good fresh, much better than when aged. Go figure. [ (Old Rating) 8/3/8/3/17=3.9 Vintage unknown but at least a year or two. Nice malt, caramel, honey and dried fruit. Sweet and sticky. Very good brew but not the hoppy experience I was led to believe. Oily flat and full bodied. Hopps have subsided and have turned lovely and complex. ]

Hmm, i thought it was an IIPA. Nice big hops in the nose and flavor. Probably shouldve drank it a couple months ago, but still very good. Nice flowery smell, with a caramel-y texture in the taste. This was awesome.