Pike Old Bawdy Barleywine

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

Aroma is strong and fruity with a syrupy note and a woody undertone. It pours a warm, clear chestnut with a fairly thick, if not too persistent, buff tan head that leaves patchy lacing. Flavor has fruity, malty and woody notes, and the alcohol bite is not as strong as in other barley wines - beware, it could sneak up on ya! Smooth texture is rough around the edges and has a persistent, if not strong, tingle.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 5

2011 vintage. Sampled on 4/12/2012. This barley wine pours a slightly hazy dark brown color from a 22 oz bottle. Small to medium sized white foamy head. The aroma is caramel and sweet, bready and biscuit. A medium to full bodied Barley Wine. The malts are caramel, bready and sweet. The hops are piney, earthy and herbal. Decent carbonation. Very malt forward Barley Wine, yet there are some piney hops in the background. I am not sure that the combination works well here. It comes off a little astringent and the hop bitterness seems to be combating the malt sweetness instead of contrasting it. The aftertaste is more like an IPA and it is kind of throwing me off. Not sure if I like this one. Mouthfeel is full. Finish is clean and smooth. Aftertaste is bitter.

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

Aromas and flavors lean towards the sweet caramel and bready malts. A nice orange and grapefruit hop presence bring some balance to it, faint hints of dark fruit as well. This has a bit more hop presence than a ' regular' English barleywine, pretty straightforward -not alot of complexity. Overall a nice and easy barleywine, that's not overly sweet nor over / under hopped.

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

2006 bottle - held up pretty well (way better than an 05 old stock!). definitley sweet leaning - rasiny, fruit, malty...i'm sure the hops have faded, but it works. slick but full mouthfeel. gotta try one o these fresh!

Aroma: 5 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 7

A bold amber colored beer with a small off white head that disappears quickly. There's no lacing. A stringent fruity nose. Citric, honey, fruit taste. Not over powering. Medium bodied and smooth

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

(2009 edition) I like this beer a lot! WTF!!!!!! Poured entire 650ml bottle into my schooner mug and the only thing I see are cornflake sized floaters everywhere, my wife looks disgusted and is about to dry heave. Orangy honey brown body with a thick skiff. Can’t wait to filter this gunk out with my teeth then chew it like gum. YUM YUM, AWSOME AROMA!!!! Smooth woody alcohol with no heat, sweet hoppy bitterness, large amounts of caramel, more yum……..droool……..i love this style of beer. Mmmmmmmmmm…..peachy hops. Taste is the same, lots of leathery/ wet wood, peach, perfect bitter, great alcohol presence, hints of coffee. Never gets to sweet. Smooth and thick (that’s my nick name when me and Gully disappear into the woods together) very easy drinking, great flavor, awesome beer.

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

Nice barleywine, not the best, but pretty nice. Poured a hazy dark amber under almost no head. Aroma was hopped and malted; quite appealing. Taste was a very good combination of hoppy bite and malt richness. Mouth was thick and creamy smooth, as was the finish. Best I've had from Pike.

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

2007 bottle: drank 6/22/09 @ 6:39pm H-Town .. .got for free by saying it was a sample, then i let my stupid asst manager steal a bottle of the blonde, she then fucked some 60 year old dude right there in the deli area, gross.. . Pours a dark tan, with a healthy medium head, lacing is fantastic! .. . sweet molasses, syrup, and aged dark fruit, some oxidation due to the age off the shelf .. . very smooth stuff, no abv detected at all, could get you in trouble .. . old shoe leather, and cellar dust yeast also there, fresh is my wish.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aLc_7NKdSU .. . ages well but drink this fresh.. .

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

2008 release; Sampled December 2008
A solid pour into my 25cl tulip glass produces almost two-fingers of frothy, tan colored foam. The beer is reddish amber color that shows a lightly hazed, orange / red tinged copper color when held up to the light and shows bubbles from the light carbonation struggling to rise up through this viscous brew. The aroma is sticky with residual malt sweetness, ample caramelized malt and some resinous, citrus focused hop character. Ample biscuit-like malt, whole grain cracker notes, touches of toffee, concentrated sweet tea and caramelized malt sugars play the leading role while hop notes of tangelo, touches of lychee, some pine needle notes and grapefruit take a secondary, supporting, but definitely quite noticeable role.

This beer is definitely thick and chewy; it has a viscous heft to it that allows it to stick to the palate initially, but a biting, ample, almost abrasive bitterness balances this out by scrubbing the palate clean of the sticky malt. The bitterness really lingers on the tongue for quite some time after a sip. The bitterness actually has a bit of green, hop astringency to it that makes it all that much more gripping. The crystal malt character contributes quite a bit to the flavor, but doesn't overwhelm or get too cloying; it does accentuate some citrus flavors from the hops though (grapefruit and orange zest). I like the clean, sweet, yet not cloying, lightly toasty, biscuit leaning malt character that this beer has up front.

Clearly this beer was meant to be aged, I like it fresh and aggressive though. It is quite smooth at the front of each sip with the sweet malt and citrus hop notes, but then the aggressive, scathing hop bitterness comes riding in and obliterates almost everything in its path. There is not a whole lot of complexity to this beer right now, but I have a feeling that it will pick up more of this as it mellows and ages for a couple years; I am not sure I will like it better that way though. There is only one way to find out.

Purchased: Liquid Solutions

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 5 | Overall: 6

This brew poured a meidum amber with a nice tight off white head. The aroma was on the sweet malt side with some alcohol and hardly any hop notes. The mouth feel was medium and the flavor was sweet malt, alcohol, dark fruit and mild hop spice. Alcohol was fairly well covered. Overall, not bad.