Profiled by Ken Carman
83 BA, 3.7 UnTappd
I must admit: I’m old school. To me this is too much like a double IPA. But it was submitted as a Barleywine, the cans even said that. Oh, I understand: the newer BJCP guidelines over the years have upped the hop level in barleywines, making me miss the maltier, sweet barleywines; like I’ll Have What the Gentleman on the Floor is Having. Making hops a bigger focus in barleywines to me is a mistake. Yes, you have to increase the hops for balance. But if I want “hoppy†I would go DPA. If you want to make a distinction let’s talk East Coast/West. DON’T %$#@ with my beloved barleywines!
Appearance: longstanding big pillow head with a few small bubbles. Great glass coat. A slightly dark yellow with relatively good clarity. Bitter approaches a little too much astringency.
Nose: hint of caramel malt, more pale and hops. A sweet orange-ish and zest-like sense behind that.
The mouthfeel is caramel and slight fresh hop-like sense under the very dominant bitter side to the hops. A tad more bitter than caramel. More caramel malty than most barleywines these days. Hop bitter lingers, fruity orange-ish tangerine mix fades fast, obviously hop driven. More early additions would have helped hop perceptions, less late. The bitter becomes annoyingly astringent after a while. I’d enjoy one glass but not go back for a second. And if I like barleywine I always go back for a second! Higher abv be damned.
Although I prefer the more sweet versions of old, and the astringency is annoying for me; especially in this style, I feel this is well crafted and enjoyable. I would have given it a 4.2 if it had been an Imperial/Double IPA, but even for the newer Guidelines over the years I feel it just a tad overboard. As far as Imperial I understand my comments are a matter of taste. But I stand by my Barleywine concerns. Even if hops should be the focus, this is DIPA focus.
NOTE: Only after I wrote this did I discover the beer sites list it as a DIPA. Not sure what happened here.
3.8
Readers: for now we are using only BA since InBev owns Rate Beer. We may get UnTappd but their site security is done with something that resembles a bad version of Candy Crush!
Welcome to the PGA beer rating system: one beer “Don’t bother.” Two: Eh, if someone gives it to you, drink. Three: very good, go ahead and seek it out, but be aware there is at least one problem. Four: seek it out. Five: pretty much “perfecto.”
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An IBU by any other name would taste just as bitter… or would it?
Cherry nose with a light pale malt background for the nose. Almost perfumy. Tis pleasing an inviting. 
More and more, lately, I seem to be faced with reminding people of producers whose names have become submerged a bit in that vast sea of the New and Buzz-worthy – those breweries and wineries that you probably liked at one time but trampled a bit in your understandable rush to try and explore new things. That’s not a criticism. I do it, too. Everybody does it. What’s new is always more interesting than what’s been done, seen, tasted, experienced before. That’s human nature but human nature also dictates, as time passes, that we read a name online or in a magazine or on TV that prompts a little spark to crackle inside our synapses, causing us to mutter, “Oh, yeah…”
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