Southampton Old Herb

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

Amber in color not a whole lot of head. Thick nice feel in the body of the beer. Nice alcohol warmth. Toffee and caramel. Touch of hops at the end.

(Bottle #454, 2005 vintage) Pours a cloudy amber body with a spare bubbly head. Aroma of biscuit, caramel, plastic, cherry, and oak. Flavor of bread, toffee, caramel malt, light spruce/herbal, and cherry.

Thanks to bu11zeye, Poured a cloudy amber with off white head. Flavor was sweet and malty with a slight bitter with nice soft alcohole spice. Very nice.

In short: A whole lot of malt sweetness with some alcohol. Good beer, below average barley wine.
How: 2003 and 2004 bottles, tasting session with Montreal crew
The look: Cloudy amber body with a medium beige head
In long: Pleasant body with lots of caramel, butterscotch and toffee. A bit sugary. Might be the age but I thought the hopping was way too shy. A little dry grass in the finish but not nearly enough to balance it. Alcohol is apparent but feels a little less than 11%. Overall this is a pleasant sipper for those with a sweet tooth. But this is a small barley wine that doesn’t measure up with the legion of big american barley wines, so small in fact that that it can fit in little 250ml bottles.

Murky brown beer, even with a hard pour I could barely work up any froth on this one. Smell is powerful and pretty enticing malt, brown sugar, dried fruit, caramel and a tough of spice - cinnamon? Taste is strong and malty, not too sweet, a bit hot but not unpleasant, a touch of citrus and bitterness, rich warm feeling from the lush texture. The finish seems a bit peppery, or is that just a slight alcohol burn? A well made barley wine, but for me this style just doen’t deliver as much enjoyment as others, the flavor always seems to be a bit hidden by alcohol.

Hazy amber color. Powerful malty aroma, with caramel, wood, light apples and lately some alcohol too. Good body strength, with powerful malty flavor and caramel/toffee, strong bitterness too; well balanced; the alcohol warms the mouth just a bit. The final too is well balanced, with a lot of sticky sugars and enough bitterness. Excellent.

2005 vintage. #430/500. Pours a dark caramel color with a small foamy beige head. Unfiltered. Aroma of candied sugar, Sugar Daddy candy, caramel, and malt. Taste of caramel, candied malt, brown sugar, toffee and somewhat of a grapefruit hoppy flavor. A very nice barleywine.

2005 vintage, bottle 134 of 500. Murky orange brown color with a short lived cream colored head that quickly shrank to a ring. The aroma is marred by an oddly medicinal minty note, coupled with lots of alcohol. Flavors of raisen, candied grapefruit rind, toffee, toast, vanilla, some ash, and lots of alcohol in the finish. Not the blended depth of flavors that I like from the best Barley Wines, and this may be suffering from following the ’03 Doggie Claws, but it just didn’t seem that great.