Schlafly Reserve Oak-Aged Barleywine

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

(trade with someone. Unfortunately, I don’t remember who) 2008 version - Small foamy head. Dark amber body with lots of bubbles. Slight vanilla aroma of oak. Flavors of sweet fruits. Some apricot. Vanillas. Lightly toasted coconut. Almost a wine barrel aftertaste. Warming on the back of, and in, the throat. Average body. There’s a bit of a residual sourness that lingers for some time, which I’m not exactly keen on for a barley wine. I’ve had worse, but I’ve also had better.

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

Pours an orange-ish copper with slight haze and off white head. There is some spotty lacing clinging to the glass too. The aroma is tough to pick up and discern. I get some mild and vague dark fruity esters, some wood and then a bit of booze. The aromas are fairly well melded together. The taste is a nice marriage of both barrel aged notes and some malt and dark fruity barleywine sweetness. The wood and dark fruit hit first. The dryer boozy tannin like flavor hits later and builds toward the finish creating a dry ending to the taste. The barrel age seems a bit more dominant than the classic barleywine notes. I’d prefer the opposite or a bit more of a balance. Still high on the yumminess scale.

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

Bottle thanks to Travlr: Poured a muddy brown with some reddish tips, head was light and beige. Aroma was woodsy, alcohol, vanilla, and malt. Taste was very whiskey and oak with a roasted malt and nut mix. There was a lot going on in the finish, but in the end whiskey won that war as well.

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

Sampled at the SLC tasting 1/23/10
Appearance: Slightly hazy amber with a nice off white head
Aroma: Dark fruits, sweet malts, caramel, oak
Taste: Sweet malts, dark fruits, oak
This was a good barleywine, well balanced. Just enough oak in the aroma and taste, but not overpowering.

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

Very prototypical barleywine...even with the barreling. Would be a good one to give someone and say this is what the style is supposed to be like. I've had better, but also much worse. This was a purty pour. 2011. Smelled of the barrels, caramel, oak, and spicy hops. Flavor much the same.

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

2011: Seems young but ready to go all the same. Color is fantastic. Low head ringlet. Oak, wood, fruit, herbs, mmmmmmmm. Alcohol there but should be expected. Thanks Fengshuidcu.

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

A sampling of a bottle from 2007 at the pfoxyjohn dinner party - I found the beer to be cloudy and caramel sweet, but with just enough hop balance to keep it interesting. It was lighter in color than I anticipated and kept a wispy head. A very enjoyable barley wine.

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

Interesting barleywine but my first thought was that it's too young and doesn't develop well, the problem is that the bottle is from 2007 so age doesn't appear to help it out. Good thick caramel aromas and flavors, nice looking in the glass, interesting mix of flavors and certainly worth trying.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 3 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 5 | Overall: 5

750ml bottle -

Totally caught off guard with awfulness of the aroma. Like a rubber bicycle inner tube and a tire burnout. I haven't had a beer with this much rubber in the aroma in a long, long time. The appearance had a really nice opaque orange body with a creamy 1-finger head. Flavor, thankfully, had none of the rubber showing up. But what was there was cotton-candy like sweetness and little else. No showing of the oak it was aged on, no showing of hops...just pure candy sweetness. It wasn't cloying in the mouthfeel, and alcohol was kept well in check by the malts. But was was just too one-dimensional with the cotton-candy like sweetness.

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

What a great barleywine. I had several different vintages of this brew. The '07, '09 and '10 and I must say if you stumble upon the '10, put it away for a few years. It needs some time. The nuances, berry fruit, oak, booziness and dark cherries are amazing. Big beer, not too rich, not too much caramel, just smooth as hell. But the '10, its a little young my friends, maybe in a few years.