Southampton Old Herb

Brewed by Southampton Publick House
Style: Barley Wine
Southampton, New York USA

bottle # 477 of 5000-Pours a lite amber with a lite white head. Nose of limburger cheese and a faint grassy hoppiness. Med-heavy bodied. A fair amount of sourish notes with some toffee, citrus and vanilla. Lite bitterness. Good, but it’s pretty ballsy to charge $10 for this.

2004: Cloudy caramel color with ruby highlights, no head. Aroma of caramel, spices and alcohol. Flavor of caramel, spices and alcohol. Light to medium body, soft carbonation. 7/3/7/3/14 3.4 2002: Cloudy caramel color. Aroma of caramel, alcohol, grapefruit, spicy and resinous hops. Flavor of caramel, spicy and resinous hops and alcohol. Medium body, unpleasant texture, soft carbonation. 7/3/7/2/14 3.3

2004 Version (Bottle #456 - 8-3-8-4-16=3.9): Assertive hop aroma has notes of citrus-orange/grapefruit, resinous pine, chocolate and biscuit. Clear brown copper with thin off-white head that recedes to ring. Orange biscuit flavour melds into beautiful pine-like spicy hops with fair bitterness and some nice fruity tones. Medium-full body finishes far less dry than the older vintage and the flavours marry wonderfully in this younger offering.

2002 Version (Bottle #481 or 493 - 8-3-8-3-15=3.7): Strong citrus pine hoppy nose with strong hints of alcohol. Seems really thick and sweet. Opaque tan/brown with decent tan head that recedes to ring. Strong pine resinous hop flavour with plenty of maple sweet malt character and a fair bitterness in the very dry finish. Fair alcohol warming. Medium-full body and aggressive carbonation that tingles the tongue.

Both vintages enjoyed with asheft, beerbuzzmontreal, MartinT, muzzlehatch, Rastacouere and Yowie.

2-year-old 2002 vintage: 9/3/7/3 16/20
The Lure:
Sumptuous pine hops wildly thrive amidst the various candied fruit and alcohol. Maple syrup mud in which grows a few citrus fruit. Quite Bigfoot-like, complex and intense, even though this one’s over 2 years-old.

The Festivities:
Alcohol towers over the maple syrup sweetness and the piney, green hoppiness, soon to cause their downfall. Big, airy bubbles create a brash yet tired body within which crawl grapefruits and resinous bitterness.

Transcendence:
Energizing vivacity hiding some inner-confusion.

Young 2004 vintage: 9/3/8/4 16/20

Aroma is less prominently hoppy, flavors are better united, classier, palate is more cohesive as well, berries complexify the maltiness and the lesser intensity of it all allows us to see further. A truly promising vintage.

Young 2005 vintage: 7/4/8/5 15/20

Aroma is less attractive, mouthfeel is round and perfect, flavors are very well-balanced. Hoppiness is pretty subdued, maltiness isn’t that complex, and flavors aren’t that expressive. Rather a straightforward barley wine, but of the utmost class.

2002: Dark Copper, not much foam. Mostly hoppy aroma, bold hops really, reminding me of Chinook with plenty of piney and grapefruity nuances. At the same time, a nutty and interesting chocolatey aspect aspires to more room, though it never manages to attain the hops’ intensity. On the palate, it comes out rather earthy, pretty mineral and somehow salty. Taken globally, it feels rather uncohesive which is really not Southampton at all, lacking in flavour and balance. Stone-like dryness clears out the rest in its boldness. At the same time, mouthfeel is adequate at best, a thin-medium body with sharp carbonation.
2004: Integration here was superior to 2002’s. Much more malt is around to balance out a lesser amount of hops resulting into a much more tolerable dryness level. It’s mostly full bodied, bold, smoky with pinesol like hops in the finish. This one would score 3.7 while the 2002 would score 3.3.

bottle #477/500-thanks to Erway for sharing this rare barleywine with us. Pours a slightly couldy orange hue with a decent off-white head. A wierd aroma that was funky, musty and part hoppy also with a tinge of caramel malts. sourness shows up in the flavors moreso than in the aroma. This one could use some aging i think.

Clear ruby-amber body with a grayish head. Nose of caramel malt plus unexpected funky, sour, stinky cheese aromas. Malty flavor with maple syrup, cheese and old socks. Also has a winey element. Considerably acidic. This is a crazy beer. Infected? Markowski proves fallible.

This 12 oz. bottle (No. 194 of 500) of 2004 vintage Old Herb was sent by shippos as part of a BIF X-Mas package. The beer poured opaque orange in color with a couple of inch tall head sticking above the rim of the goblet. The head stuck around for a while and left a solid sheet of lace around the glass as it died. The aroma was sweet and strong, with grapefruit, pineapple, passion fruit, and honey mixed in with caramel, and raisins. The taste was similar to citric fruits in honey with some rinds creeping in. The malts were definitely accented in this beer with the hops being quite restrained. The alcohol was well covered up in the cascading sweetness. Mouthfeel was sticky and syrupy, and the aftertaste was nicely warming. Soft and mellow, I liked this beer a lot.