Fish Tale Leviathan Barleywine

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

Last beer of the tasty day .. . pours a dark mud .. foam is decent .. . very tasty, molasses, caramel, cupcake, caramel, and burnt caramel with light plum .. . good stuff .. . calmer than you are.. . calmer than you are...

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

the one i had was almost more of the english style...less on the hops...thick, big on malt. the hops that were there were not of the west coast floral variety, but were quite bitter. decent balance, good overall, but i've had better.

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

Bottled (Batch 5). Amber colour, small white head. Aroma is sweet malts, some alcohol and fruits. Also quite strong wooden and licoriceish notes. Flavour is sweet malts, plum and raisins. Mild notes of vanilla and wood too. Wellbalanced.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 8

****re-review on the 2006 vintage - October 13, 2008***
Mellowed out, smelt like peat out of the bottle, fairly easy drinking but lacked any real depth. Not a 3.8 after 2yrs of aging.

I've been sitting on this beer for well over a year and today is the day to finally get to it. I probally should have drank at least one fresh, but too late for that now. Poured out a small tan head with little retention - nice lacing though! Spotty and not going anywhere. More brown than red, the colour is quite nice and clear as I did not pour in the entire bottle. Aromas is pretty nice and fresh even after all this time. Aroma is a good mix of malt, wood, nutty (search for it and you will find it), sweet cherries, cirtus, a slight spice (whatever it is) and probally a bunch more but I can't really make it out due to the compexity of this. At different times, the grapefruit / citrus aroma of the hops is the first thing you get. Just poured out the rest of the bottle and there was near zero sediment. Aroma is very smooth just like the flavour. Is the flavour almost too soft? The large bitterness has faded due to the large presence of tons of malts. Taste is extremely full and soft. The massive somewhat bready malts are so huge that I am having a hard time finding specific flavours, but blended all together have made for an incredibly easy drinking 10% beer. Grapefruit, spice (something liccorice like, but not licorrice (sp.??)), candy, a retarded ammount of malts...shit - I don't know - it just keeps changing every sip...savage - all while remaining very smooth. I haven't forgotten about the hops, but at the temperature that I'm draining this at, the malts are superior. The hops have been relegated to the end of the mouthfull. I can notice some wood in the aftertaste along with the lengthy bitterness that is combined nicely with the malts giving a nice aftertaste. Nearing full bodied. Leviathan at room temperature is amazingly mild. No notice of the 10% at all except in my typing skills as I had to do some serious editing on this after dropping back the entire 650ml in about 40 minites. I have more in my cellar that I will open in, oh, 2009. A wonderful beer. Buy some and cellar it.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

Bottle courtesy of CBA: Poured a clear deep copper color ale with a small foamy head with limited retention. Aroma of sweet malt is domination with some very subtle dry figs and fruits. Taste is dominated by sweet malt on the verge of being disgustingly sweet with again some light dry figs. Body is a lot more watery then I would expect with some low carbonation. Ending is quite bitter but does not attenuate some of the sweetness.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 10 | Overall: 10

Dark honey brown body with slight orange showing through, hazy looking in the glass not cloudy but there’s a definite haze. Rocky light tan colored head capped off this brew didn’t really have great retention though but a skiff still remained on top, lots of bubble columns are rising up from the bottom of the glass they look pretty. Appearance just got an upgrade at the bottom of the bottle there was a ton of sediment my beer is now cloudy not hazy. Very nutty aroma combined with dark bitter smelling malts, noticeable hops are giving the beer a nice citrusy smell. The aroma is good not to weak and not overpowering I really like it, it seems to smell gets sweeter the more the beer warms in my glass. Good malty bitter taste, combined with wood and nuts, the alcohol is defiantly noticeable in the finish and this gave the beer a nice warm feel. Perfect amount of hops in the brew not overpowering the taste but still giving it some zing, the beer finishes sweet but leaves a mild bitter after taste, maybe even some darker tasting fruits in here YUMMY. Perfect beer, smooth, tasty and very high quality, too bad it only comes in 650ml bottles these just aren’t big enough.

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

Spawned Nov 2005 Pours a dark coppery color with a quarter inch head that fades quickly to a very thin cap and ring. The lacing that's left behind is this and spotty. Smell; lots of sweet caramel and toffee malts. There's some hints of citric hops as well as a touch of alcohol. Taste; the caramel and toffee are present, but there's also a little bit of chocolate and vanilla. The hops are there as well, but they were a little stronger in the nose than they are here. There's also a little bit of a charred flavor in here, with almost no alcohol presence. Mouthfeel/Drinkability; mouthfeel is full bodied and very smooth, almost velvety, and the drinkability is really good, especially since my glass is practically empty already.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

Pours cloudy brown with reddish highlights and a small, lastin head. The aroma features a hearty and sweet malt base with toffee and maple notes accented by raison, alcohol, and a hint of pine. Mouthfeel is full & viscous, adequately carbonated, with a strong alcohol bite in the swallow. The flavor is balanced because all it's components come out screaming. There is strong, sweet malt, ripe fruit and alcohol. Barleywine isn't one of my favorite styles, but this one was enjoyable.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 8

Sampled from bottle. Pours copper-orange with a very faint haze. Its off-white head is thin, but lasting. Aroma is mostly rich, caramelized malts with dark fruit notes. The flavor is wonderful: very bready and balanced with some spicy hops. Also has dark, ripe fruits up front and a bit of cocoa in the finish. Full-bodied with moderate to light carbonation. Very drinkable with a distinguished flavor.

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

One of the better barleywines you can find, that's for sure. Man, this was good and it just kept getting better. Aroma was vanilla, woody, caramel and dark fruits. Appearance was a murky swampy looking browninsh color, but it was great to behold. Flavors were just in-freakin'-credible with oak, earthyness, wood, vanilla, raisins, plums, figs, maple, and hops abound. One of the great beers I've had recently where it's fairly easy to pick up distinct flavor profiles with each sip. Damn near perfect.