My favorite barleywine two years in a row at the Toronado Barleywine Festival (2000,2001).

Now this is one tough beer. When I drink this I feel like I’m a seahardened old man sippin one down before I set sail. This is about as bitter as it gets. It kinda taste like poison which is friggin awsome. I usually chug one of these down to start a long night of drinking. Unfortunately I’ve never seen a liquor store that sells bottles of this...I’ve only seen it on tap.

My stealth black crock bottle says 2006 @ 11.5%. Pours rich drain water amber after a flood w/ full semi creamy froth reducing to island spatter. It literally looks like thick mud soup as it fill the glass. Aroma is sweet w/ cherry and malted acid hops. Super full nectar w/ mellow residual effers. Intense and robust flavors are extremely hoppy leaving 3rd degree asprin burns complete w/ sloughed off skin. This stuff is so hot it burnt my lips off. A big massive malted mudslide tries to balance it out at mid palate but hasn’t got the momentum. Kinda like the Fire dept arriving too late leaving your charred remains for someone else to deal with. The aspin wins out to the finish w/ a K.O. Big gobs of chewy roasted caramel and new leather scattered in the crowd somewhere but get lost in the chaos. Overall: this ones like war of the worlds. Hopsy firey asprin against the flood of a malted sludgeslide. Like it says above, "intense and robust". Age this one please or drink now and I’m not repsponsible for what happens. I’m tellin’ ya man. Put on your hard hat for this one and approach with caution. You might want to bring a knife and fork. Highly recommended.

I was once told by and good drinking buddy of mine that Old Crusty was Evil in a Bottle. Now DonYounger calls him the TreeHugger. Rusty brown head on top of the muddiest brown malt toughness you’ve ever seen. Hopp aroma to burn off your nose hairs. The first BW I’ve ever had. I thought all BWs were all like this. I wish. Hop bitterness is the ultimate palate killer. A condensed BREWER. Thank you John for getting me to the next level with this beer!

Vintage 1995. Tasted at my Barleywine tasting in May of 2004. WOW!!! I have saved this since 1995 and am glad that I did! Such a mellow nose. Alcohol is still strongly present to the smell. Also smells a little medicine-like (I consider this a plus). This is unfiltered and has the gloriuos color of dishwater on steroids. No head at this point. Hoppy, but balanced. Burns all the way down to your duodenum. Great flavor hops, few aromatic bitter hops detected. The only thing that I have to say negative about this beer is that it is packaged in a twist bottle that I cannot bottle my homebrew cyser in. Why did I not buy a case of this in 1995? Oh, the stupidity of youth...