Rogue Old Crustacean Barleywine

I was really disappointed with this one. I’m not a great fan of barley wines, but this was one of the yuckiest I’ve had.

Pricy ceramic bottle. Pours a cloudy dark orange-brown with very tight yellowish-beige head. The aroma is strong pine, toffee, and caramel, with some fainter notes of plum, lemon, wood, and alcohol. The flavor is immediately impressively bitter with fairly aggressive piney hops. The bitterness lasts throughout, but some caramel and raisin tones start to come out underneath as well for a modicum of balance. The finish has a touch of honey as well as a charred note. The aftertaste is lingering and dry, with just a little bit of alcohol. Not too shabby.

[Bottle, ’06 vintage] Pours deep amber with an almost non-existent head. Really sweet aroma with a lot of caramel malt and brown sugar. Taste is very bitter throughout with the piney hops completely dominating over the malt and sweetness. Medium mouthfeel. Long bitter finish. I’ll have to try one of these with some more age on it, because the hops were just out of control right now.

Poured from a 750 ml ceramic bottle; vintage 2006. Murky rust; oily. Aroma of wet carpet and mildew with dark toffee and pine resin; some golden raisin and summer fruits. Taste is abrasively hopped and woody; very dry, and giving only a very dead sweetness of nuts and caramel. Soapy, resinous and very earthy in a completely unforgiving bitter finish of Cascade that lingers indefinitely; waxy. Palate is loose and dried out; medium to full in body. Altogether, this is simply too violently hopped to be judged properly as a barley wine right now. Rough edged; lacking.

Robust and delicious. It was a slight surprise at how much flavor that there was in this beer. I have had other barley wine’s but this is by far my favorite.

Sampled at Cellar’s Wine & Spirits Wednesday evening beer tasting. From a 2006 vintage ceramic bottle pours a semi-hazy caramel amber brew with a thin tan head that quickly dissipates to a fine film and barely a thin tan ring. Aroma of citrus zest and caramel malt, with a touch of brown sugar, and some slight pine character. Taste is medium bodied, light carbonated with a very citrus hop flavor that is more dimensional than any caramel flavors. Finish is semi-dry and mild bitter along with a light aftertaste of grapefruit, light caramel and chocolate malt flavors. Nice alcohol warmth too.

7 oz bottle. Vintage 1998. An amber so dark it’s almost brown with a faint ring of head. Sweet candy sugar nose with caramel, toffee, and malt. A dry bitter body with some hop presence remaining. Chocolate hints with some sugars remaining. A well aged beer, vastly superior to the 2006 I sampled earlier tonight.

12oz bottle. 2001 Vintage (I have a large vertical and will some more time on this one). Poured a deep and muddy brownish color with a small sized off white head. Aromas of caramel, toffee, dark fruits, and lighter sherry. Tastes of caramel, dark fruits, light citrus, brown sugar, and sherry. Medium alcohol in the finish.