Blue Lake, California
John Barleycorn Barleywine Ale
Style: American Barleywine
Availability: Limited - Seasonal - Winter
ABV: 9.1%
Bottle text & Info:
N/a
Tasting Notes:
So basically, Mad River saved you the work. read the label, notice the vintage. yep. 2008. The fine folks over at Mad River double batched the 08, releasing half and sitting on the other half. What you have here is the batch that has been aged at the brewery. Now lets get into it and see how the flavors are. Nose and appearance are as expected. Deep copper, little to no head, wafts of eastery and prune like smells. Brown sugar and dark fruit notes sandwiching a nice little touch of citrus hops finishing with a peppery, mustard green like dryness. Overall, a pretty little solid little barleywine. Perhaps not as strong in the abv as i'd expect in a BW but the flavor profile is great. Many have likened this to an older english style barleywine but the hops are much too prevalent for me to make that correlation. You gotta appreciate the effort from Mad River. hand claps for letting this one sit for a year and mass releasing!
best BW I've enjoyed all year, proly cause it's two years old, way drinkable. solid review by PB.
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