Schlafly Reserve Barleywine Style Ale 2008

Schlafly Reserve Barleywine Style Ale is an English Barleywine with a new vintage coming out each November. Aged on new Missouri white oak chips after primary fermentation and conditioning. This bottle has been aged almost 4 years. Sweet English toffee is upfront with a lot of vanilla and some dry oak. The 10.2% ABV is pretty much non-existant at this point, and that goes for the hops too. I wouldn’t normally let a Barleywine age this long, but I picked up this 2008 bottle when I found it in Nashville in the summer of 2012. This was quite good, but maybe a little too sweet and malty for my tastes overall. I think it would be better with a little less age on it.