Southern Tier Back Burner

A clean deep mahogany body; thick beige foam is fat and sticky. Unadventurous toffee and blood orange nose; rich and balanced, if typical. Salt and sweat lacquering pungency on the malts, and there’s almost a tomato-like acidity in that saltiness, as it begins to lean toward vinous sweetness; fleshy cherries, raisins, and plums. A distinctly cellared type of wooden-citrus hop impartation, which provides a comfortable bitterness; in tandem with well-built caramel malts the distant citrus colors paint a decadent picture of dried apricots slathered in dessert, and it’s a great representation of hops in a barleywine. This bottle’s a few months old, though, and this characteristic would probably have been a bit harsh when completely fresh.

Flavor has retained a bit of the acrid metallic character of a fresh high alcohol high hop example. But it loosens itself up really quickly. Rich malts wait beneath. Toffee, wildflower honey, sweet black tea, and seared crusty sugars. Hops are lively but not brash. Soft apricots, flowers, cantaloupe, and mandarin oranges. The cookie characteristics of the malts are gooey and decadent, while the hop characteristics are vibrant but quiet enough only to complement, but alcohol increasingly, consistently, upends the balance. Tilting it back toward metallics and perfume-like hotness; it actually burns a bit toward the end, which is wholly unfortunate considering that it seemed at first to be so surprisingly drinkable. Meanwhile the sweetness is gathering a slick sheen of sugary citrus tea.

Full palate is sharp and hot, with a brisk but syrupy texture. It peters out into plainness at the finish, which is primarily sterilizing, while showing flavors of vodka, toffee, and extract vanilla. This one really shifted course at it warmed, into the booze, and away from the unassuming nuances that made it blandly pleasurable in the beginning. Not unexpected, given this brewery’s reliance on alcohol, but also somewhat disappointing, given that it might have been much better, and probably would have been had I had the patience to wait another six months or so. No sleep lost, though.

RateBeer Rating, Style and Glass: 95, BWSA, Snifter ABV, Volume & Calories: 10 % in 22 fl oz. estimated at 400 C Purchased at: Canal’s Lawrenceville, NJ for $4.99 (sale) Aroma: amazing, delicious, tea, herbs, alluring. 10 out of 10. Visuals: beautiful, blood red moon, quickly thinning, off white head, interesting lace. 5 out of 5. Taste: blunt, delicious, silky, mild, surprising, very well crafted. 10 out of 10. Palate: dull, numbing, medium to long bitter finish. 5 out of 5. Overall: Taste is smooth and alcohol is amazingly disguised. Very interesting aroma — more than inviting. I would have it again, and it is a favorite. It was very well crafted. 20 out of 20.

Reddish/brown pour with a thin tan head. This one has a nice sweet aroma with some malty and dark fruit undertones. Nicely carbonated, medium bodied. This one has a lot of flavor and it’s balanced. Sugary sweet with some caramel, plum, raisin and a little bit of spice. Hops are subdued but they have a nice bitterness that complements the sweetness but doesn’t overpower the dark fruit and malt. This is a really good brew.

Pours a lovely dark copper with minimal offwhite cap. Aroma is really something else: perfumy, tea-like, gentle herbal hop aromas with a well-balanced rich caramel sweetness. A little sticky but a bit thin overall on the palate, with mild roasted malt character followed by a very solid but not overwhelming rooty hop bitterness and a warming bitter liqueur note. Like a more reserved bigfoot.

22oz bottle. Pours murky reddish brown with a thin offwhite head. Smells sugary malty sweet and a bit spicy, maybe faint hops, slight oxidation. Tastes sweet and oxidized malty, slight fruit, maybe a hint of hop spice flavor. Full body, ok carbonation. Ehhh