Sonoran Old Saguaro

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

This poured an amber color with a moderate white head. The aroma contains some toffee, brown sugar, caramel, and raisins. The flavor is quite sweet and warming with the alcohol showing through. A lot of toffee showing in the flavor along with molasses and dark fruits. Overall this one was quite in the English mold, but it was a pretty good one!

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

this review is from notes previously take Cloudy burnt orange color w/ nearly no head. The nose has some hints of banana & syrup. It's thick & rich on the tongue w/ a nice warm afterglow.

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

Poured a hazy, reddish amber color with a medium sized, light tan head that left nice lacing on the glass. Aroma of raspberries, tart grapes, prunes, vanilla oak, nougat, caramel malts, and nuts. Taste of sweet caramel malts, green apples, dried fruits, and medium alcohol in the finish.

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

This has a sweet caramel aroma and it is a dark cloudy amber body with an ok head. Buttered biscuit malt carries a little bit of molasses with just enough hops to balance it out. I can't say that this is an excellent barleywine, something just makes it seem second rate without noticing any flaws.

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

Lt red color, small nearly no head. Very malty nearly syrupy, caramelized malt flavor. Sweet yet hopped to balance sweetness. Mouthfeel is full and round. Finish is very smooth. Aftertaste is sweet yet subdued. Very complex flavor is this beer. Nice barley wine. Need to hide some away for a year or so.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 5 | Overall: 5

(Sampled from a bottle that was brought to the homebrew club meeting a few nights ago).

"A Barleywine from Arizona, eh? Could be interesting". Well, to be honest, there wasn't a lot about that was either good or bad. Although I enjoyed the aroma (hints of fruit, nuts, hops, and a bit of alcohol), the taste didn't live up to it's share of the bargain. No amount of warming produced much in the way of life in the rather staid and turgid body. One-dimensional, in that there was big-ass malt, and enough hops to keep things from getting too sweet and cozy, and a noticable alcohol bite, but not much else.

The mouthfeel and drinkability of this was by no means bad, but with the monotonous taste profile, I would be hard pressed to want another. An unfortunate beer, that had such promise in the frontend, that doesn't really deliver in the end.

7/10/03 Re-review: My buddy Richard passed me an extra bottle of this recently. And though it's not the season, please allow me to put this into American Football terms: "Upon further review..., Personal Foul, Unneccessary Roughness, 15 Yards, Repeat 4th Down...". Quite harsh and unappealing. Scores adjusted accordingly.
//TB

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

This barley wine pours with a slightly cloudy deep amber body topped by a medium thick head with lots of lacing. The aroma is sweet, malty and caramelly with a nice candy note, great fruity notes and a touch of citrusy hops. The flavor is sweet and malty wtih a nice candied fruit note, slight bitter notes and a touch of sourness. Full bodied, smooth and slightly warming.

Aroma: 0 | Appearance: 0 | Mouthfeel: 0 | Flavor: 0 | Overall: 0

For $6.00 a four pack, Old Saguaro is a great deal, and my favorite barley wine. Full of maltz and alcohol, with some hopfen finish, this is a top notch brew. The ale is aged for six months before bottoling-unheard of in a mass produced micro brew. The ale varies a bit with the batch, but always a welcome sight on shelves of Trader Joe's the only place in California the brew is available. A bit sweet for some folks, but to me THE barley wine! Brought this to Poperinge two years ago, and it got a very good reception.

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

very little head atop the brilliant brownish orange shine...aroma was a strong onslaught of cherry twizler and marichino's..mmm..nice licorice foundation with hop delights, cherries, alcohol depth...very warming..yet super smooth..this is a perfect cold weather beer..Yummy stuff..bitterness in the finish..I got another one to age a bit and I can tell it will get even better...