I am finally having the first of Morticai's homebrews, the 2015 Maple Barleywine.
He also sent some homemade maple syrup, so we made savory French toast for dinner, with sliced French bread, cherry wood smoked bacon and some poblano peppers in the mix. Mmmm, good....
The beer poured with little to no head, but left persistent lacework in the glass, so it wasn't highly carbonated, but had enough CO2 to offset some of the sweetness.
It was a bit cloudy, amber colored.
Maple aroma and flavor was light, but I would expect that since it is a highly fermentable sugar.
This was a very full bodied beer with a strong malt sweetness (mostly caramel with some dark bread flavor) and a noticible alcohol warmth. It had a significant hop flavor - not citrusy, but more spicy, and a sweet and bitter finish.
Overall impression was of a very fresh American Barleywine and it accompanied the French toast well.
I am looking forward to comparing it to the other version he sent, the 2012 edition.
This was a very big beer, with strong but clean alcohol flavors, high hop flavor and bitterness and strong malt flavor. Again, I am really looking forward to the older version to see how it aged.