Epic Brewing Barley Wine

Aroma: “It started off mild and built into a nice combination of malt aromas that include the requisite nutty, caramel, toffee, and light roast. The hops are woody and spicy, and there’s alcohol evident, in a slightly sweet way.” Flavor: “This shows signs of great aging with sherry and dates coming on strong and complemented by wet black malt, roast, earthy hops, medium bitterness, lots of alcohol, and finishing with a dessert-wine sweetness that stops just short of cloying. Throughout, there’s rich layers of chocolate, plums, dates, dried cherry, and other assorted fruits.” Overall: “It’s a big, complex English-style barley wine with a sweet finish—a great beer to share with friends but one that might be harder to finish alone. It seems prime for aging, but the rich layers of malt and ester flavors offer no reason to wait. It’s not a subtle beer and doesn’t try to hide its strength. This is an after dinner, around the fireplace sipper.”

Aroma: “Caramel malt along with a touch of roast, toasted coconut, mild vanilla in background, and nice light spicy hops aroma that includes floral and orange. It grows into toast with jam, berries, cherry, and strawberry.” Flavor: “A spicy and resinous hop flavor forms the backbone of the beer and is accented by dark crystal malt, toffee, toast, unsweetened baker’s chocolate, dark fruits like dates and plums. A touch of bitterness and chalkiness in the finish. The ester profile is fairly clean, complementary, and well fermented.” Overall: “A big red ale with malt complexity dominated by noble hops character that leaves a resin-forward finish. Some might find it weird thanks to the vanilla and coconut notes, but that makes it bold and ultimately satisfying.”

Aroma: “Caramel and cooked apples with an underlying toast. Some vanilla sweetness is there, too. Heavy red delicious apple up front, a nice touch oak and smoked malt earthiness. Very low background fruity esters.” Flavor: “Caramel and vanilla dominate the palate. Toast, red apple, cherry, pear, and a light tannic dryness are also present in lower levels. Balance of the base beer is spot on, and it finishes dry. The oak tannins and vanilla work well to accent all of the other flavors while the hops are just enough to center the beer.” Overall: “A little heavy handed on the oak tannins and vanillin, but the interaction of the malt and the wood is soothing, beautifully conceived, and well executed.”