Jekyll Brewing Off The Grid
Jekyll Brewing Off The Grid is an English Barleywine that comes in limited, hand numbered and signed 22oz bottles. This is bottle 720 of 1500.
The color of this beer is fantastic, a combination ruby red and brown that looks great held to the light. There is very little head to this, and from the pour I can tell it is close to flat. The aroma is sweet and malty with caramel, brown sugar, cherries and dark fruits, and a little banana is throwing me off a little. The taste is fairly complex; raisins, caramel, toffee, leather, a little cherry. There is that banana thing in the taste again, so odd. It is almost like they used a Belgian yeast strain or something. Now that I say that… this is drinking a lot like a Belgian style Quad, just one with a lot more hops. Speaking of hops, they are pretty nice in this. Maybe not crazy flavorful, but they add an appropriate amount of bitterness for the style and leave the tongue tingling a bit in the aftertaste. The lack of carbonation is an issue, but it is working at this point thanks to the style. Be warned though, this could end up being totally flat if you decided to cellar it for a year or two.
A very tasty, if not slightly confused Barleywine. I think I would give this another go if they brewed it again.
