Maui Brewing Company - Old Fashioned Barleywine

We’ve put together this latest special offer from four of our favorite big beers from Maui: an old-fashioned-inspired barleywine, an impeccable wee heavy, a White-Russian-esque golden imperial porter with coffee and coconut, and an imperial milk stout hinting at crème brûlée. These are massive, beautifully executed big beers that are both satisfying and super easy to get into. And they showcase just how good Maui Brewing Co. is with their limited releases.

We were particularly excited about the Old Fashioned Barleywine, a super-limited release from Maui that delivers on the Old-Fashioned front. This is potent, with rich bourbon and oak character laced throughout. This gets accentuated by bitters from Kupu Spirits, Maui Brewing’s own distillery, and freshly zested oranges contribute a ton to the aromatics.

Old Fashioned Barleywine pours a quite dark cola brown, rich in color from its barrel-aging time. Light-tan foam with solid retention, and impressive head given the alcohol level. There are potent citrus aromatics absolutely reminiscent of the fresh citrus rind in an old fashioned; vibrant orange with a hint of lemon. We found round cherries, cola, and light caramelization underneath. There’s a rich barleywine core here with plenty of red fruits, dark maltiness, and some warming vinous heat from the ABV. Generous aroma, increasingly so as this warms.

Full-bodied mouthfeel, definitely bringing that old-fashioned vibe to the forefront. There’s potent orange-focused citrus with nicely expressed bitterness; the bitters addition does a lot of work throughout, with solid structural elements from that and the barrel time. The core barleywine brings a ton of expressive fruits, including cherries, strawberries, and significant core maltiness—lots of caramel, dried fruit, dates… The bourbon-barrel impact supports an overall old-fashioned vibe, providing welcome oakiness, bourbon, vanilla, and slightly bitter tannins. This beer delivers on its main concept, with a subtly warming presence overall and generous orange zest, cherries, and bourbon throughout. Impressively smooth execution.