Wine Barrel Aged Barleywine - Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery

AgentZero

Illinois

3.73/5  rDev 0%
look: 3 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

A - Actually kind of an ugly brown yellow color with a small off-white head that left a ring that slid down the sides of the glass during consumption.

S - Smells of vinous notes and apples. A lot of caramel and some sweet sugar, some vanilla, just a touch of barrel.

T - This is amazingly sweet. When they brought it out to me they told me it was aged in Woodford Reserve barrels. Upon smell and taste I was surprised, I thought it was very vinous or possibly aged in apple brandy. Turns out it was aged 1/2 in white wine and 1/2 in red wine. Not sure if it is a blend or was just aged equal amounts of time in the the respective barrels, had already bugged the server enough I didn't want to ask. Very vinous, with some green apple taste and vanilla and barrel. It's quite sweet, with some sugary caramel. A bit too sweet for my liking, but it doesn't taste bad.

M - Soft, but active, carbonation. Fairly full bodied.

O - I had Peter Crowley's Haymarket BA Barleywine yesterday, but I thought the one done at RB by the guy who replaced him was actually better. It's not outstanding, but fairly unique and scores points for being innovative.

Serving type: on-tap
@ Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery, 1 W Grand Ave, Chicago

09-06-2011 02:10:03 | More by AgentZero