Belgian Barleywine - Great Dane Pub & Brewing Company (Downtown)

dirtylou

Washington

4.35/5  rDev -4.4%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

on-tap, dane downtown

collaboration beer with Capital

"Commercial Description:
This beer is a barleywine, collaboration between Great Dane and Capital Brewery. Instead of the usual English or American yeast strains, we in fact, used three different yeast strains noted for their ability to ferment to high alcohol levels. One of these is indeed Belgian yeast strain, and there fore imparts a character is truly Belgian flavor, full of spicy aromas. At 14% ABV, this is the strongest beer we've ever offered at the Great Dane. To make a beer this strong requires a lot of malt. No, I mean A LOT. Using so much malt leads to a very full bodied, sweet beer just packed with flavor. Think of our regular barleywine, but even fuller and stronger. Other brewers have made beers higher than 14% alcohol but add sugars or freeze it to increase alcohol without adding extra flavor or character. The Great Dane's Belgian Barleywine may be the strongest beer out there made only with malt and no additional sugars. "


appearance: served in those thick snifters that the dane uses - pretty small pour, but i guess thats ok with this massive beer. bright orange body, light webbed white head

smell: very potent - big yeast presence, huge sweet malts, spicy booze. really nice

taste: very nice beer - the dane has always done barleywines well. sweet belgian yeast, big sugary malt, belgian flavors add a real nice kick to this one - lots of booze, citrus, brown sugar

mouthfeel: syrupy, spicy, boozy bite

drinkability;good

Serving type: on-tap

03-06-2010 19:42:58 | More by dirtylou