Rogue Old Crustacean Barleywine

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.

Served on-tap at Summits Wayside Tavern, Snellville, GA where they have 124 taps not all of which have beer attached to them. This was a very dark reddish color and it was hard to see through the glass. There was little head and not much lacing in the glass. Wow! What a taste! It hit like a dry red wine at first. After my initial shock I was able to gain my composure and continue my review. I could taste roasted malts and chocolate and this stuff was very bitter. I loved it. It has a very full body. The aroma was of roasted malts and piney notes.

tasted like bitter shit and moldy chocolate dont believe the hype. really disgusted by it. a big upset

1994 vintage bottle, 7 oz. Drank it about an hour ago. Got it at Jimmy’s, a bar on the Lower East Side in NY. Paid $14. Served in a small pilsner glass. This is by far the best beer I have ever experienced. It is also one of the oldest and it really shows how well barely wines age. It poured with no head. It was a dark bar so it is difficult to be accurate on the color. But it was dark, not black but a really murky, dark ruby color. The smell was magnificent. Definitely a hint of chocolate. Along withe the alcoholic sweetness of a barely wine. The taste was not as strong as a Samichlaus, very unnoticeable alcohol for this type of beer. Must have mellowed with age. Also a hint of chocolate and a slight sourness at the end, very slight. The body was perfect, not light but not heavy like a heavy imperial stout. Finished with a great sweetness. Made me want to fall off the bar stole.

RERATE 5/14/06 2002 bottle. Fridged for about 30 minutes. Poured into a St. Bernardus glass. Color is a slight murky brown, slightly translucent. Smell is strong with the barleywine sweetness, raisins and plums. Some hop presence and a bit of chocolate. The taste still has a hop presence, not overwhelming but pleasantly present. Some bitterness at the end. Very good but of course nothing as special as the 1994 old crusty.

I love to rerate this beer. 8/1/06, had a bit of the 1997 7 oz bottle at Jimmy’s. I wanted to bring up that this still had a strong hop presence in the aftertaste, especially bitterness. A bit thinner than the 1994 bottle, may just be a fluke. This is just a freaking great beer.

2/9/07, compared 2001 and 1997 bottles on 2/10/2007. Interestingly, this 1997 was a slightly different bottle than the nip I mentioned above. The bottle is bit taller, about half an inch and a bit thinner. Also, this must have been stored better because it tasted great. Had lots of body, no hints of oxidation and some chocolate. The 2001 bottle was ridiculous, still a hop bomb. Almost 7 years and the hops have barely faded. Just a hint of chocolate hint at the flavors that will emerge with time.

Another Re-Rate: 1995 bottle consumed on 10/27/09. So, its 14 years old at this point and the oldest I have ever tried this beer. Pours headless and muddy as hell, a very dark barleywine, not black but extremely dirty dark brown mud. Aroma is prunes, old sherry, some old musk, sweet oxidation and alcohol making it port-like. As I search the cardboard sherry, cherry, aging grows. Mouthfeel is thick with flavors of iced-tea prunes, thick caramel malts, some light sherry, and even a bit of bitterness from the hops at the back end. Still good stuff, I am not in completely love with this beer as I used tobe but love is hard that way.

Pours a brown color with thin tan head. Aroma is sweet hops with fruit and slight hops. Flavor starts very malty and sweet and finishes with a strong bitter taste. Probably one of my favorite Rogue brews, but most of the ones I’ve had are very delicious

Re-Rate: Bottle from 2001; This beer definitely aged well...mellowed out the alcohol taste and brought out what you want. Definitely taste lots of raisins and caramel...lingers forver, I’ll be tasting it in the morning. On tap at Collins Pub REAL Stong Beer Festival. 3 tasters/$6. ’04 vintage. Light brown with big head. Sweet smell with floral hints. Really hoppy for a barley wine. Malty at the start, but is overpowered by the alcohol. Too bitter at the finish. Good, but not very balanced.(3.7)

Had at a tasting. Has a very dark red/brown color. Almost no aroma...it may have been because this was about my 15th brew...but still, very dissapointing. Flavor was very good though...really well balanced bitterness and sweetness. Mouthfeel is a bit too sticky. A pretty good brew from rogue...whose majority of beers suck balls.