Widmer Brothers Reserve Galaxy Hopped Barleywine

Brewed by Widmer Brothers Brewing Company
Style: Barley Wine
Portland, Oregon USA

Serve in Snifter

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Looks nice; smells strongly of molasses and malts. This is a pretty decent beer. Some sweetness but not too much. Not all thick or sugary; quite nice. Just a tad pricey.

dark orangish copper body on the pour with a 4-6mm orangish head and good lacing. aroma is like citrus candy. taste is similar, rather light and thin body for the style, but it works really well imho, lets the hops shine and makes it very drinkable. very good highly hopped bw. lovin it.

UPDATED: DEC 2, 2011 Big fruits and malty caramel on the nose followed by toffee and piney hops. Appearance is a massive dark shade of brown with a small foam head. Taste is a thick malty caramel with a pleasant leafy hop bitterness on the finish. Its a nice sweet, crisp full-flavored beer. There is a subtle hint of fruitiness in the background. Overall, this beer is full of well balanced flavors. With a pleasantly thick taste on the palate followed by a refreshing hop bitterness. I’d give this an A+ rating.

His beer is great and if you read the commercial description it is dead on not much to add. I will say at 9.5% abv almost not alcohol burn its just smooth.

UPDATED: DEC 25, 2011 Bottle shared at The Craft Beer Co., London. Pours clear ruby with a foamy, white head - lovely. Big, sweet nose, juicy hops, toffee. Great flavor, tons of sugar balanced by strong bitterness of earth and pine. Full bodied with average carbonation. Warm finish, toffee in abundance, some caramel and toasty malts. Very tasty. Update: Bottle at the Kernel Christmas tasting 2011. Thanks to Seth. Lightly cloudy, golden-brown with a fine, cream head. Big dark malt sweet bread nose, some pine and resins aroma. Big sweet flavor, more pine and resin, also brown sugar, big malts, some caramel. Full bodied with fine to average carbonation. Lightly warming finish, sticky hop resins, some toasty sugars. Pretty thick and drinkable. Slightly cummy. Very good. 4.2 (Rated the same as last time without checking, so this is definitely my score for the beer.)

Dark, deep red color with a healthy tan head, good retention Aroma is bready with dark fruit, strawberry, toffee and candy Good balance of biscuit malts, hop bitterness, and mild sweetness. Long hoppy finish. Everything is really well in balance here, a very nice sipper.

The attractive auburn colored body was topped with a two finger thick foamy head, which took a few minutes to dissipate. The smell was very sweet like treacle, with some spice backing it up. The taste was very sweet, almost like diluted honey. There was some sour cherry flavor in the mid palette, with bitterness in the finish. The beer felt a little runny in the mouth compared to others in the style. This is not truly a classic barleywine, as it lacks a significant level of fruitiness, or the hop punch. It drinks more like a cross between a Belgian quadrupel and a barleywine, but weaker than both.

Boxed bomber from Capone’s. Pours hazy deep ruby with clingy off-white head. Nose is imperial red ryeish, with heavy red malt, resiny hops,m pineappledefinite strawberry. Tastes of caramel and toffee up front, with a huge IBU load, again with the imperial red holistic flavor, and late fruit, including berry and tropical citrus. Complex and rather dense palate heft, with some defnite heat, but the good heat that tells you that this beer doesn’t pull any punches. I would caution all lightweights to stick to Bud 55, because giving a beer lightweight this beer would be like giving a Marlboro Light smoker an Oliva Series V Churchill. The last dregs give me a slap of realization that this one reminds me a great deal of the various Sly Fox Odyssey offerings. Great beer, and criminally under-rated here.

Bottle. Rich amber beer with a cream colored head. Sumemr fruit and light caramel aroma. Caramel and sumemr fruit flavor with light pine and light grapefruit. Medium-plus bodied. Summer fruit and grapefruit lingers with caramel and light pine.

Ruby brown color with a small head. Sugary fruit aroma. Sweet mixed berries. Flavor veers to nearly burnt sugar, strong fruits (maybe a cherry/blackberry type mix). Light caramel. Moderate bitterness. Kind of dry. For being a 9 month old hop-forward barleywine, this is still remarkably hoppy.