Rogue Old Crustacean Barleywine

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

Hazy brownish red with a thin beige head. Moderately sweet fruity malt aroma. Big hop forward flavor with nice herbal and earthy hops and some mildly sweet english malt backbone. Some nice fruity flavors of plums, currants, dates make an appearance. Some alcohol kicks your taste buds ass in the finish. Pretty nice.

12oz bottle from 2003, purchased in Nashville in July 2006. Alas, would that we could buy Rogue’s premium brews in this form again. Old Crusty remains a fine example of a hop-forward American BW. Some nutty qualities in the aroma suggest the English style, and the balancing malts are welcome too. But this is basically a roided out brew that’s mellowed over time and sips like a good nightcap.

2006 bottle..Pours dark amber brown with a small brown head. Fantastic aroma of chocolate, caramel, strong piney hops, and alcohol. Flavor is alcohol, hops, and burnt malts. Not quite as pleasant as the aroma. Palate is a bit astringent. This one may have been better fresh.

Completely unrepentant, almost brutal, but just restrained enough to pass for a civilized kind of thing - this is the Old Crustacean. Redolent of something ancient and thick-carapaced crawling reeking from the briny depths, this is a true barleywine, raw, cloudy, and complex.

Had this in a dark bar, so can’t really tell what it looked like except that it was darker than I expected with a nice-sized head that looked near white. Aroma had tons of hops for a BW, as well as dark fruit and malt. The flavor was also hoppy for a BW, but with a solid malt backbone and some spice and alcohol for good measure. Not bad, not great.

Copper color. Smell of hops, malt, brown sugar, nuts, spice, alcohol, caramel, pine and some minor citrus peal. Tastes the same and the alcohol coats the back of your mouth. Very nice BW. This was 2004 vintage.

This beer is the 2004 vintage. It’s a medium amber color, lightly carbonated, and has a very thin white head. There’s a sweet malty scent with a faint hint of alcohol. This beer has a big, bitter hop character, and some really nice fruit accents. It has bold flavors without being offensive. The finish is a little dry, and it’s definitely not a beer that you would want or need to drink a lot of. This beer wants to be drank with a nice approachable, crumbly cheese like Caerphilly or Cheshire cheese.

2006 ceramic, swing-top bottle. Pours a very cloudy dark brown color with a thin, crisp off-white head. Smells of a subdued hop spiciness and sweet malts. Tastes hoppy spicy with lots of caramelly sweet maltiness. The spiciness lingers and personally I think this brew wold have tasted better fresh. Lingering flavors of cardboard for me. Full bodied with good carbonation.
Vintage 2004. On-tap at Najas during the BW Fest. Pours very cloudy dark caramel brown with a tiny white head, decent retention. Smells dark and very sweet caramel malty with a surprising amount of hop aroma, spicy and slightly red fruity. Tastes malty and caramelly sweet with a good amount of red fruit hops and some alcohol on the finish. Full body, good carbonation. 837416 = 3.8