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| Samuel Adams Griffin's Bow |
Dried/candied pale fruits—bananas, melons; maybe apples, pears, white grapes/golden raisins—up top and in front. Strong impressions of vanilla and spice—mostly vanilla. Pale bread, gently-toasted, with loads of caramel/honey/treacle and traces of (maybe) maple. Musk flashes past, as earthy-grassy bitterness struggles to make its presence felt for more than a brief moment. Strong brandy-like alcohol presence. Sweet, then sweeter, then sweet again.
The beer is solidly medium-bodied, with decent carbonation, lots of bready chewiness and syrupy stickiness. A pretty surprising amount of boozy burn. Long and sticky finish, kinda almost drying.
This is a kinda weird barleywine, very sweet but never roasty or toasty and really nothing like balanced. Flavor is intense, but not particularly well integrated. There are some complex layers buried in the sticky-sweet, but really it's something of a slog to get through. I do wonder if aging the beer would help, but I'm underwhelmed enough to be less than thrilled by the prospect. Not horrible, but nothing I'm feeling any need to have again; a minor disappointment but not a drainpour.
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