Sweetwater Donkey Punch!

Brewed by Sweetwater Brewing Company
Style: Barley Wine
Atlanta, Georgia USA

Serve in Snifter

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Thanks to hopdog. Pours a lightly hazy orange amber with a smaller off white bubbly head. Aroma of lots of fresh hops, caramel, some dark fruits light toffee. Flavor of pine, grapefruit, caramel, toffee and light toasted malts.

Pours a deep copper red color with a tan head. Aroma is sweet caramel, piney, and citrus hops. Flavor is caramel, with a citrus hoppy finish.

1L Bottle: Pours a slightly hazy copper amber with a thin web of wispy white lacing head. Big fresh piny grapefruity resiny hoppy nose has a rich, sweet caramel maltiness for support. Body starts with a fairly full sugary carmel maltiness and big citrusy bittering and flavor hops. Finishes slightly warming and bittersweet. Seems a bit too fresh and unbalanced right now, but should age pretty well.

thick pouring burgundy/amber liquid with a large frothy yellowish head. aroma of mandarin orange and apricot. flavor is full hops with plenty of sticky malts. sweet citrusy flavors. medium bodied. alcohol is nicely hidden and the hops are balanced enough to keep from being too obnoxious. touches of caramel but i would prefer more. excellent job. nice bottle...i’ll have to save one.

UPDATED: AUG 9, 2009
Name: Donkey Punch
Date: September 22, 2007
Mode: Draft
Source: Brewfest, Asheville
Vintage: 2007
Appearance: clear dark amber, fine beige head
Aroma: huge dark caramel aroma with lots of earthy and citrus hops
Body: sticky body
Flavor: rich dark caramel flavor, lots of earthy hops for balance keep it pretty dry, the caramel sweetness comes in the second wave but the hops keep it under control

Name: Donkey Punch
Date: October 01, 2007
Mode: draft
Source: taco mac
Vintage: 2007
Score: 3.9 to 4.1
Appearance: cloudy dark amber, wispy beige head, layers of scattered drippy lace
Aroma: the aroma has more sweet fruity character and less of the huge hop presence until it warms and picks up a citrus grapefruit rind character
Flavor: the caramel sweetness is more up front in the flavor this time with a nice fruity character that keeps getting richer as it warms, the hops are still present and balancing but mostly in the background
Overall: swinging back to the fruity malty side on this sample

Name: Donkey Punch
Date: November 11, 2007
Mode: bottle
Source: sherlocks
Vintage: 2007
Aroma: sweet fruity aroma has a grassy hop character
Body: creamy body
Flavor: flavor is much more like the double ipa a lot of people see, sweet crystal malt and lots of balancing citrus hops, lasting bitter finish, just a little fruity character to be found in the bottle
Overall: bottle is an iipa whereas draft is a barley wine

Aroma: 8/10; Appearance: 7/10; Flavor: 8/10; Palate: 7/10; Overall: 16/20
Rating: 4/5.0
Drinkability: 7/10
Score: **4

Name: Donkey Punch
Date: July 10, 2009
Mode: Bottle
Source: Tasting
Vintage: 2009
Appearance: clear gold, frothy off white head
Aroma: sweet bready malt aroma, lots of floral and earthy hops
Flavor: sweet malt flavor, lots of hoppy bitterness

Name: Donkey Punch
Date: July 20, 2009
Mode: draft
Source: summits woodstock
Vintage: 2009
Appearance: clear dark copper, fine off white head, drippy lace
Aroma: sweet caramel aroma, caramel candy, floral hops, light spicyness
Flavor: sweet malt flavor, candy caramel, sweet bread, light fruity character, light earthyness, light balancing bitterness leaves a lot of sweetness, light peppery alcohol

Aroma: 6/10; Appearance: 7/10; Flavor: 6/10; Palate: 6/10; Overall: 11/20
Rating: 3/5.0
Drinkability: 6/10
Score: *4

Bottle. I don’t like being down on local breweries, but I’ve been down on Sweetwater for awhile. With this brew, they’re back in my good graces. This is by far their best offering and a very unique and hoppy take on the style. Very smooth and drinkable. Reminiscent of the original Wild Dog IIPA. Very good.

UPDATED: OCT 7, 2007 Red and sticky and full of piney goodness. 10%???? Well hidden. A little less malty than I would expect.....but great hops. The hoppiness that hurt their impy stout serves them well here. Incredibly drinkable barleywine.

Wow. I feel pretty fortunate. Apparently the only people who have rated this so far were at the Brewgrass Festival. What an awesome time it was. This definitely was a good beer. A classic example of an English barleywine. It was very citrusy on the nose, just bursting with floral hops. The taste came through with lemongrass, orange blossom and all kinds of other complexities. Nice thick texture, but not syrupy, definitely a lot more body than many of the other beers I sampled. The finish was long lived and very drying.

UPDATED: SEP 28, 2007 Sampled at the 2007 BrewGrass Festival. I can’t believe how they keep getting away with all these names. Funny stuff. Pours amber and clear with a light white head. The aroma is just DANK hops with a light sweetness in the background. I mean really. It’s just like smelling a fresh bag of hops. Lightly sweet flavor with caramel infused with pine. Alcohol lingers in the finish. Full sticky mouth feel. While I liked this, it did not seem to have a lot of complexity. Perhaps that will come with some age.

wow, this was a suprise at Brewgrass, no rumors, they just snuck it on tap. I saw Suttree and he was the one to inform me of it, Thanks for that! pours a clear copper with mild white head, sweet hoppy aroma, sweet malty finish. mild aftertaste, good, light and hoppy, what a good sessionalbe Barley wine.