Bottle Logic: Function (National Collab 8 of 8) (USA: Barley Wine: 13% ABV)
Visual: Very dark brown. Thin rim of gray dust of a head.
Nose: Vanilla. Creamy. Dry cheesecake. Vanilla toffee. Cake sponge. Mild crushed coffee beans. Brambles. Liquorice.
Body: Jelly babies. Sweet sheen. Blackcurrant jam. Toffee. Golden syrup, Smooth. Marzipan. Brown sugar. Noticeable alcohol presence yet smooth as silk.
Finish: Jelly babies. Blueberry jam. Golden syrup. Marzipan. Crushed peanuts. Brown sugar. Vanilla toffee. Cream. Lightly earthy.
Conclusion: Now, I mainly know Bottle Logic for their amazing Imperial Stouts, and one encounter with like a thick fruity sour on tap when I was in Thailand which was also good. I have had less, not zero but far less, experience with their barley wines. The last I tried was good but didn’t catch my heart like their impy stouts did. So, how is this one?
Well first lets talk about the feel. Despite making the high booze of it quite noticeable so you don’t forget what you drinking, it is still wonderfully smooth as well. A great balance of showing the edges and making it easy to drink.
There is that big base malt sweetness, natch, golden syrup and brown sugar, that English style, but done far smoother than most English barley wines of a lower abv. There is a light earthiness to the finish, not much, could be hop use again calling to the earthier hop styles, or could just be coincidence. Everything else around this base is the bells and whistles.
So, those bells and whistles. First, the bourbon aging. This just booms with it. Vanilla just straight up hits you as you pour. It is still there in the body, but the body is big enough to stand up to it so it doesn’t overpower everything else but it is laden throughout with big vanilla and toffee. Fantastic use of barrel aging and impressively balanced.
Then the fruit is there and again used brilliantly. Always giving a present jamminess, into a jelly baby sweets style, but again managing not to dominate as I have seen in far too many fruit beers. The big barley wine rules the roost and the fruit just adds to it.
Amazing, absolutely spot on. A top notch barley wine. I kind of wish I liked Bottle Logic beers less as they are so hard to get and expensive here, but once again it has managed to hit the high notes!
Background: So, a short while I go I mad a mistake of thinking I would have some spare money for the month, so treated myself to some Bottle logic beers from Left Field Beer. Then my boot SSD died. Due to FUCKING AI DATACENTERS taking all the production line they are scary expensive now. I was punished for my hubris. So, yeah Bottle Logic beers are just a tad expensive in the UK, but they have a very high hit rate of being utter bangers, so I try to try when I can. This one is a bourbon aged English style barleywine with blackberries. I had to google who it was a collab with, turns out to be a tap room call functionpdx. I know literally nothing about them apart from that web site. Music wise I wanted BIG, so went with Intestine Baalism: An Anatomy Of The Beast.
