30th Anniversary - Jack & Ken's Ale
Presentation: Poured from a 750ml bottle into a snifter. A: Pours a dark brown, almost black, color with a one finger thick, fluffy light brown head. There is very good head retention on this one. S: Rich and dark roasted caramel malts provide a pleasant backbone to a great floral and citrus hop aroma and nice earthy notes. There is a light alcohol burn towards the end. T: Follows the smell quite well. The roasted dark malts hit you right up from with a bit of hop character to go along with it. This then fades in the middle to a quite mellow malty taste with some earthy tones. Finally this turns into a much harsher hoppy bitterness flavor with earthy overtones. Finish is quite bitter and not as dry as I would have expected. M: Creamy carbonation with a relatively heavy body. D: Strong beer with some intense and complex flavors so I believe I have a couple of these but anything more than that would start to get overwhelming. Notes: This is very respectable barleywine that I think is only going to get better with age. The hops are quite noticeable and while they are good now I think it would better if this was to fade a bit more.