Razorback
Pours a deep, murky red colour, nice scarlet up to the light, with an ochre head, quite generous with nice dense bubbles. Sinks to a modest crown, with nice webs of lace. Bit dark for a barleywine, but very pleasant. Nose is a good barleywine aroma, lots of nutty toffee notes and a huge hop aroma, lots of west coast American fragarance here, pine bark and a hint of passionfruit. A slight cardboard aroma creeps in from the hops, but fresher in character, bland without being dour. It's a decent BW aroma overall but not hugely aromatic. Taste is a bit darker than I expected. Lots of dark, sweet malt, with hints of chocolate, walnuts, molasses, lots of burnt toffee and pecan. Some oaky hints come through midway and become more pronounced on the back. Some dark cherry notes as well. Hops are distinct on the back, slightly gritty and even powdery in texture, with a sharp alcohol bite. The hops don't strangle the palate the way they do in Rogue Old Crustacean (for example). Nice strong malty beer with good clean hoppy finish. A bit sticky on the mouthfeel, doesn't have a lot of texture, actually feels thin for all its viscosity. Harsh alcohol bite on the back. Decent drinking barleywine. The 11% is noticeable but not off-putting.