Sweetwater Donkey Punch!

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

@ LCRBM 2009. A hazy dark amber colored beer, with a beige head. The aroma of hop bitter with sweet of a lot of fruits. The taste is dry some hop bitter. It’s fruity like citrus and mango. The aftertaste is gentle bitter and some sweet.

Thanks kiefdog for the share. Pours gold amber with a white head. Nose is malt, hops, raisins, more hops, sugar, fruitiness, and more hops. Flavor is very similar with lots of hopiness and some maltiness. Overall a decent barleywine, but not something I would seek out; seemed a bit unbalanced and uberhoppy, but not in a Stone way.

22oz bomber, latest Dank Tank release, and since BA still lists it as different than the original Donkey Punch, I’ll post my review here. Pours a dark, clear amber with a small soapy beige head that recedes to a ring and swirl quickly and leaves only faint traces of lacing behind. The aroma certainly leans more toward balanced DIPA territory with a big hoppy blast up front, with some sweet citrus hops but mostly deep sappy pine in the nose. There is some caramel malt sweetness in the nose, but much less than I would expect from the style. It’s definitely all about the hops in the aroma. The taste is much, much sweeter than the aroma. It does have the initial floral hop kick up front, especially pine, but after that the sweetness of the caramel malts take over. Not much in the way of toffee or dark fruit or other complexities you might find in some barleywine. Nonetheless, it’s a tasty beer. The mouthfeel is slick and medium bodied, but the alcohol presence does come through more than I was expecting and leaves the palate burning after each sip. I can’t wait to bring an original Donkey Punch out of the cellar to compare to this one. This one reminds me of the fresh Donkey Punch and I imagine time has improved it. Right now, there’s just a lot of big malts and hops and it doesn’t quite come together for me. Still, it’s an extremely good beer that I think will cellar very well.

Nov. 2007 - Beautiful brown color with really impressive head, especially for abv and beautiful lacing, really nice. Aroma of caramel malt. Flavor was predominantly caramel malt with a faint teabag flavor to go with heavy floral and piney hops and also mild citrus. Near perfect balance of sweet and bitter. Big thanks to eaglefan538 for sharing.

Bottle shared by Dansting at theisti’s Holiday Tasting on 12/28/07. Pours a deep orange-red with a thin wispy skin that reduces to a small ring of beige bubbles clinging to the edge of the glass. The nose is a huge, sweet, malty front with notes of dark fruit and nice, big, citrus hops. Medium-bodied and oily (almost flat) on the tongue, with a bitter hopped finish. Sweet, slick and malty up front with piny, citrus hops bringing some balance to the finish. This is a nice and hoppy, yet fairly mellow, barley wine. Thanks for sharing this one with us, Dan!

2008 1L swingtop - Thanks Toby! - Pours amber with a small off white head...aroma is hop forward and sweet, flavour is similar, dark caramel malt, orange, hop bitterness and boozy...really enjoyed this.

Citrusy and floral aroma, cookie dough, bready, wildflower honey. Full mouthfeel. Taste is citrusy, dripping with tangerine. Bitterness is moderate. Nice balancing sweetness. Very enjoyable, hard to believe it is 10%.

Thanks to Cougar for this. Amber pour, big white head. Aroma is pretty hoppy with citrus a lot. Flavor is caramel, citrus hops, lots of fruits, apples and raisens. Lots lof dry-hopped character to this big on the bitterness with a hoppy citrus aftertaste.