Third Coast Old Ale

Brewed by Bells Brewery
Style: Barley Wine
Kalamazoo, Michigan USA

Batch 8135. Been sitting on this for awhile, can’t wait anymore. A little malty aroma with hints of caramel and raisin. The head is creamy off white, good lacing and mostly diminishing. The body is cloudy and copper brown in color. The initial flavor is smooooth, a little sweet, a little bitter and creamy. The malt leaves a little caramel/vanilla taste and is average to long. The body is medium, the texture creamy. I’ll get another six to age.

Much better than the bottle from the same batch that I had 7 months ago, which was far too hot. Sweet and "candied" taste mixed with some earthy wood. Still fairly hoppy giving a drier finish which was quite necessary to counteract the rich sweetness. It wasn’t really cloying though and had rather soft mouth feel. Alcohol was noticeable but not detracting.

Thanks to alexsdad06 for this! Pours dark brown with rusty highlights and a long lasting, fairly large off-white head. Aroma is of tobacco, leaves, grapefruit, dirt, wood, and maybe just a bit of mint or lime. Tastes surprisingly hoppy, which I didn’t expect! Bitter grapefruit hop flavor, but it’s an either grapfruit, along with caramel, dirt, burnt toast, tobacco, slight vanilla. Malt flavors seem slightly light. Finishes with an "Arrogant Bastard" style aftertaste of grapefruit and dark malt roast flavors. Lingering tobacco flavor in the aftertaste along with grapefruit and a sort of unpleasant salty cloying sensation. Very creamy bodied but the flavors seemed so soft to the point where it made the beer seem thinner than it actually is. I’m not sure how that works. Interesting beer, but I wish it were sweeter and that the aftertast was different. Could be really good.

reddish brownn with mild head. flavor is powerful with crystal, chocolate malt present with a huge hop bitterness and even some flavor. a very strong example

Small light brown diminishing head. Muddy brown/amber color with chunky particulates floating. Strong grapefruit hoppiness with notes of carmel mixed with cherry/wine hints. A little too bitter for my taste. Full bodied oily texture with long lasting duration. Heavy bitterness from start to finish.

(Sampled 7-6-08 from 12 oz. bottle poured into shaker) Poured semi transparent very dark amber, huge frothy beige head formed and stayed around for the entire tasting with heavy lacing, aroma of malt and whiskey. Hits the mouth with a high-medium body, very sticky on the mouth throughout swallow, sweetness from molasses and brown sugar comes in the middle and slides away on the finish. Finish has moderate warming effect which I compare to scotch. Another good brew!

12 oz. bottle into sniffer. Nice rich amber reddish/brown with a big off-white, slightly tan head that fades pretty quickly. Aroma is mostly dominated by citrus hops with a bit of sweet malt hiding around in there. weird flavor; very subtle but very good once you figure out what is going on. Bitter, woody, citrus hoppy, not a lot of alcohol (just warming on finish), hints of red fruit (cherries). Thinner on the palate than abv. and style would suggest, but still smooth and pleasant. Overall: great tasty brew. A unique approach to barley wine, which is an extremely diverse, probably the most diverse, style IMO.

Dark red, brown color. Smell of hops, alcohol, malt, nuts, barley, dark fruit, raisins, brown sugar and caramel. Taste of hops, alcohol, malt, nuts, barley, dark fruit, raisins, brown sugar and caramel. Very warm and enjoyable.