Samuel Adams Griffin’s Bow Oaked Blonde Barleywine Ale

Brewed by Boston Beer Company
Style: Barley Wine
Boston, Massachusetts USA

Serve in Snifter

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I remember this being an enjoyable beer, loved the touch of pineapple and otherwise a moderately flavored beer but not in alcohol of which there is plenty. I recall a wheat taste but not mentioned on the label.

Apparently, this beer was originally released at 11.5% A.V.B, this batch is at 10%. Although that’s not a big difference, the higher alcohol level may have helped to enhance the Oak flavor a bit. The oak taste still combines with the malts and the New Zealand hops pretty well. The alcohol presence is certainly there but it’s not overbearing. As an American style Barley Wine goes, I prefer Sierra Nevada’s Big Foot, but this is actually pretty good.

On tap 4 oz. pour at Meridian Pint in Columbia Heights, Washington, DC. Clear, bright red-orange with off-white head and very good lacing. Aroma of cloves, lemon, light fruit and sweet malt. Taste of cloves, lemon, caramel, floral hops, oak and light pine. Medium/full body and medium/high carbonation. This beer has a nice mouthfeel, but is otherwise not very robust for a barleywine. ---Rated via Beer Buddy for iPhone

Fruit in the nose, but weak. Flat on the palate. Sticky. Not enough fruit on the tongue. Drinks more like a blonde ale...

Bomber. I'm a big barleywine fan but this one still has training wheels. Odd, sticky and kind of bland.

Bomber. Batch 1. Maybe a year old or slightly more. Smooth floral aroma, creamy and buttery; fresh and vanilla-like oak notes, not too strong. Thick dark honey color. Rich sweet caramel and toffee / fruit emerges in mid palate: stewed peaches and pears / lots of oak and dark sugar in finish / very warming. Medium-heavy body. Vert nice, well-balanced stuff.

Bottle at Fernando's. Aroma and flavor of some fresh hop (floral), some maltiness, and almost like a wheat taste. Palate was nice. Pretty good beer. ---Rated via Beer Buddy for iPhone

Bomber, batch no. 2. Juicy hops stumbling and fumbling right out of the neck, citrus and some jammy fruit, sure, but the oak/vanilla/bourbon dominates everything else. Light copper-orange pour, transparent, with a dense and richly creamy beige head (miniscule bubbles, lacing, really quite a meringue to look at). Taste hits right up front with the supercharged oak, vanilla and edgy wood; fades to alcohol and light numbness, there’s a little hop citrus and minorish bland caramel but really there’s nothing else here but the barrel aging. Warming is slow, long, and gradual, really a pleasant spreading experience, quite classy and refined if overenthusiastic alcohol. Despite the heavy etoh presence, the body is thinnish and passive, quite smooth and packing a bit of spice (again, bourbonous spice rather than yeast- or hop-derived) but an obvious letdown. Scale it back, boys, and let ’er rip again.

Pours copper with a large tanned head. Nose of some fruit. Aroma of fruit, caramel, some alcohol. I didn’t like it that well.

Bottle. Floral piney citrus hops aroma, very fresh and clean smelling for a barley wine. Clear copper with a small ivory head. Woody burnt caramel malt, fruity and spicy citrus hops, and alcohol flavor. Medium body, low carbonation. Very nice.