Great Divide Brewing Co. - "Old Ruffian" barleywine (2012 vintage)

Today's beer, the "Old Ruffian," is a 10.2% ABV barleywine from Denver, CO-based Great Divide Brewing Co. This beer has been in my cellar for over three years now, and I figured now would be a great time to crack it open and see how it aged.

It pours smooth and fast, with a reddish-brown color in the glass. It's got a puffy, off-white head.

Whoa, very hefty. It starts out with a taste of sour hops, and follows up nicely with powerful syrupy alcohol tastes with a very strong finish with some slightly bitter hoppy tastes. Sour is the overall flavor here, although not in a bad way. I like the big-hop bitterness that comes with the beer.

Thinking more on it, and having the beer sit on my palette for a while, I like the ripe fruit and alcoholic sweetness to this beer. It's a great example of what I like in barleywines - strong, thick, and generally sweet. But it's not overly ripe, and has just the right amount of sour. Some barleywines can overdo it and be too sour or too ripe and pungent, or even worse, too alcoholic. Although this beer is pretty damn powerful, it actually tastes more like a Flemish sour ale than it does a barleywine, which is kinda neat. I'm a huge barleywine connoisseur and I'm really liking this one. It's smooth, deep, and full of flavor and I think the three years in the cellar has really done it some good.