Score: 80
Tap pour served in a snifter glass and enjoyed on 04/08/15.
Appearance: Clear, barleywine-standard caramel brown color. Served with a bubbly ring around the glass of tan head. Minimal lacing/retention. 3.5/5
Smell: Dark fruit, raisin, brown sugar, caramel, and bourbon. Rich, and inviting. 4/5
Taste: Tastes a lot like it smells - a bourbon-spiked mix of dark fruit and caramel/brown sugar notes. Very barleywine-esque, with notes of vanilla oak too. Sadly, the finish is crisp and weak. While I like the flavors present, they come across "watered down" -- like a robust barleywine concentrate cut with too much water. 3.5/5
Mouthfeel: Very thin bodied, low carbonation (a little undercarbonated). Sweet profile, but not in a Dark Lord kind of way. The wateriness of the brew kills any sort of linger and makes it fall a bit dead on the palate. 1.5/5
Overall: Despite a solid aroma and flavor that drinks like a good barleywine, this brew's watery viscosity and lack of a finish holds it back overall. Definitely worth a pour, but $27 for a bottle seemed awful steep for what it was when something like Nomad Batch #1 is slightly cheaper (and not subject to the hype machine of a sub-500 bottle count, brewpub-only release). Maybe the bottles are better?
Cost: $27 for a 750 ml bottle or $6 for a 5 oz draft pour.
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