Victory Old Horizontal

12oz. Brown body with orange highlights and an off-white head that quickly disappears. I have never experienced a barleywine like this, and it almost reminded me more of beers I have had in the "American Strong Ale" category. At any rate, this is an exceptional effort for a style I don’t often enjoy. The body is rich and concentrated with some very surprising bitter fruit, with toffee and almond flavors following with the strong malt backbone. Good carbonation lifts this brew above the sludge barleywines can become. An exceptional beer.

07 bottle thanks to Ty5592. Poured a deep caramel brown color with ruby highlights and a fluffy, light beige head that slowly receded. Aroma of caramel, light apple, and some lightly citric hops. Sweet, smooth maltiness with some caramel and toffee with a lightly bitter hop presence and a slight hint of citrus and some butterscotch on the finish. Pretty thick and smooth, light alcohol on the finish. Seems like this one may be a bit better fresh, but still a nice beer.

Caramel colored body with a mostly off white head that quickly dissipated. Smells like a malty fruit punch and really am smelling nothing but the barley malt. There’s a touch of bitter bite in the flavor. It finishes with a hop presence, but is heavily compensated for with the malts. Really wasn’t that impressed.

(Bottle) Pours a rich mahogany color with a slight effervescent white head. Aroma of biscuit and sweet molasses. Taste includes hints of brown sugar, plum, and some citrus. Rather bitter finish, with plenty of malt to balance. The alcoholic warming is there, but is pretty smooth. A very good example of the style.

While not a huge fan of barley wines, this one is good. The boozy taste was almost absent and the rest of the beer was rich and malty. A good one for winter.

A thick, creamy beige head sits atop a clear, burgundy body. Amazing bready aroma, with apple, nutty, spicy, and incredibly sweet brandy notes. Intensely bitter taste, balanced out by strong alcohol heat and sweet, sticky malts. Plums, dates, cherries, nuts, flowers, figs, berries, caramel, chocolate and more blend together wonderfully. A benchmark Barleywine for me. Ages like a beast, too.

bottle. pours an iced tea brown with some tan bubbles floating around on top. nose is sweet and fruity with a slight floral character to it. the flavor is nicely balanced with some fruity sweetness and a decent hop bite mingling together. a bit of alcohol warmth becomes apparent mid-glass. very nice, I think I’ll have another.

(USA) This beer from Victory has a nice amber color with a med- white head. I detect a spice / caramel aroma with a brown sugar taste. Easy to drink, very smooth, and the finish has a bitter edge to it. There is a good balance to this brew, I recommended this one.