Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Real Ale Sisyphus

I always look forward to the release of Real Ale's outstanding Barleywine. So much so, that I immediately go out and buy a bunch of bottles so that one day in the future I can do a multi-year vertical and see how well these things hold up. But that tasting is for later, today we talk about the most recent vintage of Sisyphus.
The Beer: It pours an orangish copper with a good dense head of off white foam. The nose is hoppy, citrus, grapefruit, raisins, malty. The mouthfeel is full bodied, hoppy, grapefruit peel, balanced with strong caramel malty flavors. Raisins, vanilla, toffee, almost a bourbony quality. There is a slight metallic taste to the beer. Sticky. It works towards balancing hoppy with malty sweetness. I must say that this vintage is not my favorite, but I will be interested to see how well this holds up. This one gets a B from me.

2 comments:

Jeff said...

How many years are you going on your verticle? I've got 07 & 08. Going to pick up 09 & 10 this week. Figured I'd get 11 and go for it...

Barleyvine said...

Thinking along similar lines as well. I have the 07, 08 and 09, so either after I get the 10, or I might wait a little longer to the 11 before my vertical.