Below Decks - Clipper City Brewing Company, Baltimore

I've had a handful of Heavy Seas beers now and I'm pretty much smitten. Well, smitten may be a bit strong, but I've really liked what I've had. I picked up this 2009 bottle of Below Decks Barleywine about six months ago. I didn't really intend on keeping it in the basement until its one year birthday, but that's how it worked out. Part of the reason I haven't opened this beer yet is because, well... I haven't had that many Barleywines that I've genuinely enjoyed. Sure, I've had a few that have been be good, but nothing that's changed my opinion on the style as a whole. I've got high hopes for this Heavy Seas Below Decks, it has a great pedigree and might just be the Barleywine I've been looking for.

As I mentioned before, Clipper City Brewing bottled this beer back in 2009 so it's got a little over a year's worth of aging on it. I'm not expecting that to change the flavor profile of the beer to a great degree but it's worth noting as your mileage may vary if you're playing along at home.

My first thoughts on this Below Decks Barleywine were, "Huh, that's a lot lighter in color than I was expecting." I poured this beer into a medium sized snifter. It's a copper colored beer with more red than brown highlights. The body is cloudy, with bits of yeast suspended throughout. There's no head to this beer, just a ring of light tan colored bubbles around the rim of the glass.

This beer smells a bit like a Scotch Ale, lots of caramel malt and cinnamon oakiness that's really quite inviting. The flavor mirrors the aroma, you get the caramel malt up front, then the spice and oak. The finish of this beer is a little bitter and there wasn't as much sweet caramel as I was hoping for. There's a big malt component to the Below Decks but it ended up coming off as dry and bitter with a crispness that I didn't particularly enjoy. That being said, once this beer warmed up to room temperature the flavors smoothed out a bit more and the bitterness mellowed out. The downside to letting this beer warm up is that the alcohol content really becomes noticeable. At 10% ABV this beer can be a handful when the alcohol starts to show.

I'm curious how a fresh bottle of Below Decks compares to this 2009. I found the flavors to be rather harsh in this beer and it wasn't until the beer warmed up that I started to enjoy sipping it... but by that point the strongest flavor was the alcohol and all you could do is sip it slowly. If you're looking for one 12 oz bottle that'll last you a good two hours, the Below Decks is the beer for you. As for me, my search for the perfect Barleywine continues.