Rogue Old Crustacean Barleywine

Brewed by Rogue Ales
Style: Barley Wine
Newport, Oregon USA

Sampled at Brewgrass ’08. I love Barleywine. After tasting this, though, I’m tempted to modify that statement: I love ENGLISH Barleywine. This stuff is nuts. Appearance: Thick, cloudy goodness. Aroma: Hops, mostly. After the first wave of hop aroma comes a hint of dry-hopped hops. Somewhere in there are some hints of cinnamon and cloves, too. Taste: Cloyingly-sweet. And more hops. It’s like biting directly into a hop cone, basically. With lots of syrupy sweetness. 120 IBUs? Give me a break. Palate: Syrupy, with a nice spritz to make it swallowable. Overall: No balance to be found here. If this is at all indicative of "American Barleywine style," then I’ll be sticking to the English style from here out. I could have given it a lower rating, probably, but Brewgrass just put me in such a happy, chill mood. Serving type: on-tap

On tap, amazing american style barley wine. Pours a hazy orange color with tan lacing. Smells of malt and alcohol. Tastes of crazy hops that lingers on the palate.

A good beer, but one that falls short of the modern barleywine standard. Way too hoppy for a barleywine in my opinion and also unorthodox in that there is little brown sugar/maple/rum/candy flavors. Decent, fun, and satisfying, but insultingly overpriced at USD 14.99 for a fifth (750ml). A rip-off actually. Worth a try if you have extra cash burning a hole in your pocket.

Botella. Hazy deep red-brown colour with a nice medium fairly well lasting off-white head. Sweet alco dark fruity chocolate aroma. Great mouthfeel. The flavour is weel balanced with sweet dark fruits, well toasted malt, bitter hops and alcohol.

Hazy reddish brown with medium beige head. Sweet aroma with chocolate, caramel and vinious notes. Sweet flavour with hoppy, caramel, chocolat, alcohol and piney notes. Ends with solid bitterness and alcohol notes.

2004 vintage. Appearance: Pours a hazy, medium brown body with, well, no head, but what do you expect with such a punchy ABV. Smell: Full maltiness and a strong alcohol presence, it seems a bit like a brown sugar liqueur. Even four years later, there’s still a deep, resinous hop character smelling of orangey citrus and pine with a slight grassiness. Taste: Dry, restrained maltiness with only a minor brown sugar and dark caramel flavor with far less sweetness than I was expecting from the nose. Still well-hopped for being near the half a decade mark, though it’s also less than the nose led me to believe. Flavors of oranges and tangerines with a twist of pine. Some grassiness. Warming alcohol presence throughout. Bitterish finish with a long, lingering aftertaste. Mouthfeel: Medium-full body. Low carbonation. Thick, creamy mouthfeel. Drinkability: Years later and the hops are still very much prevalent. I had hoped for a deeper maltiness to have emerged, but I can be tough to satisfy in the malt department.

75 cL ceramic bottle. Pours dark amber and slight cloudy with a lacing off-white head. Mild woody hops aroma. Flavour is hops oily and light spiced. Flavour is mild sweet and dark malty towards light chocolate smoothness. Dense hoppy and bitter dry finish.

Pours auburn/brown with hinting red highlights and a small tan coloured head. Palate displays abundance of sweet caramel/toffee malt and some liquered fruits early on. Mid palate and finish is driven by significant hop and alcohol driven spice, that seems to overpower all else. With patience, this will develop really well!