Rogue Old Crustacean Barleywine

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

Small 1998 bottle at T. H. Brewster’s, LAX. Hazy red-brown colour with no head whatsoever. Wonderful raisins aroma with added fresh chocolate. Starting with raisins flavours, and continuing with port flavours and alcohol, it gradually develops towards a surprisingly dry chocolate finish. Oily texture, soft. A special occassions beer, released after 8 years in the beer cellar.

My first barleywine style ale that I can recall. Dark red brown with light head. Has a heavy aroma of caramel apples, spices and licorice. There’s some floral/fruity/citrus aromas also. Very alcoholic in flavor and finish: my whole mouth and lips were burning. Finishes like a grapefruit: harsh! Full-bodied. Delicious.

ruby color with a small brown head. wood, alcohol, hop, cherry aroma. starts hoppy and ends with a licorice sweetness. definitely a good one.

Medium creamy light brown head with some larger bubbles. Hazy dark brown body. Sweet, lightly roasted, oaken aroma; very harmonic, complex, and not too heavy. Intense, sweet, roasty taste initially, giving way to an explosion of hop bitterness (with little attendant aroma) that makes up the vanguard. Oaken, caramelly flavours. Sugary, creamy mouthfeel. A very cool beer, but a bit too excessive to get top scores.

I tried this also at Rich O’s but by the time I had it I coudn’t really rate it. Oh well, I’ll just ahve to re=rate it when I go back in March.

bottle. pours a red-brown with a ring of off-white head. aroma is potent with a good plentiful orangey hop profile along with soft crystal malt, toffee, and cookies. definitely a huge body! despite that though, it’s still fathomable and very flavourful - hoppy as hell with lots of pine notes and balanced by hefty chocolate, caramel, and alcohol notes. a slow sipper indeed. I bought two of these back in 2004 and just got around to trying one now, seemed like the perfect time and I was surely pleased.

Thanks for sharing this one Mike! Great stuff. Deep amber in colour, with an orange like tinge. There’s no real head here, but a slight dusting of lace like foam. Hopped up milk chocolate and caramel, malteasers candy, milk chocolate, and confectioners sugarall fill the nose. There’s some malt that’s also pretty heavy. FLavours are fairly heavy duty. Sweet sugared malts, with lots of hops, molasses, chocolate. This one is big and boozey, sweet and silky. A must try, and a definite sipper. Took me over an hour to finish half a bottle. Thanks again MDS!

3/3/06. Re-rate. 2002 bottle. Pours a beautiful slighly hazy deep amber/light brown and a decent head and killer lace. Aroma is very strong with lots of caramel malts, fige, prunes and fruity esters, slightly alcoholic. Alcohol in the flavor towards the end, but upfront is very sweet complex sweet maltss fruits, alcohol, very light oxidation, slightly nutty and bitter. Very smooth and still quite thick. Still intese but has aged very well. Add a couple bonus points on this re-rate, as this should be a wolrd class beer. Ages very well! 12/18/03 Really thick beer. Nice deep red color with amber highlights. Loaded with malty flavor with some hop bitterness. I noticed more of a sweet malty aroma than hops. As it warms some fruitiness develops, but does not become overwhelming, and the alcohol never really becomes evident.