Bluegrass Bearded Pats Barley Wine

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

Suprised to open my box of goodies and find a barleywine from Kentucky. Now, I think of Bourbon, racehorses and bluegrass when I hear the word Kentucky along with some sort of scene straight outta Deliverance. Okay, so the last part was a joke (not really). So am I to start thinking that Kentucky can make barleywines now? Well, not so fast. This beer was a decent showing, but I could probably count the brewers in Kentucky on two hands. I'll need more evidence to support that theory.

The beer pours out a deep rusty reddish/brown/orange color. It looks like something you'd find at the bottom of a rust pot. A nice thick creamy head shows up, much to my suprise. Aroma is caramel, brown sugar, with some orange juice character showing up. The main effect in the aroma is sweetness. A sweet malt/bitter hops combo lingers on the palate. Sugary maltiness fills the moutha and after a sip or two the citrusy zest of the hops bites back. Fairly smooth on the palate. Finishes with a slight sheen of bitterness at the edges of the mouth. A decent showing. Nothing great, but for my first beer from Kentucky it might just erase any sort of association with inbred country hillbillies and shotguns. Okay, maybe not.

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 10 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 10 | Overall: 10

The first barleywine I ever tried, and will likely be the last. It has decent enough head retension for a beer of it's strength. The flavors are a wonderful mertage of spicy fruity hops and fantastic sweet malt that gives this puppy a huge flavor explosion. But don't take my word for it, 2 gold medals at the Great American Beer Fest, 2 gold medals at the Chicago Real Ale Fest... We should be brewing a new batch in the fall of 06' at the Main St location...

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

When I think of Kentucky, about the last thing I think of is beer -- especially craft beer of any sort. So not only was this a surprise gift from my co-worker (who brought this back with him after a trip to his folks' place in KY), but I was surprised that this wasn't half-bad. No, not even a third-bad... ;)

Poured a bit on the lack-luster side of things, with a bit too much thin-and-soon-therafter-dissipated foam. But what was left looked decent enough, overall.

It was only with the aroma that I started to sit up and take interest in this beer. Hints of fruit, which is always a good sign for a Barleywine/Old Ale, IMO..., with the obligatory hoppy ballsy-ness typical of the style (to balance out the malt bill, if nothing else).

The hops are in the forefront of the flavor profile, too, but with enough "flex" to make sure that the malt profile is spoken for too.

A pleasant diversion from a brewery I wouldn't mind investigating further. This is perhaps not the most complex of Barleywines I've had in the past, but surely a lot more interesting than several other odd-ball Barleywines I've had in the past (e.g. Unitas' so-called Barleywine, from Salt Lake City, UT). Recommended.
//TB