So tonight is the night Brian and I are brewing our first Barleywine. Sweet! We’ve never made one before so it’s gonna be sweet.

As we do every time we brew, we have a couple beers, hang out, jam some tunes, and make beer. I’ll blog our recipe later, but for now, I’ll be covering one of the beers we’re drinking tonight.

We started with one of our favorites, Bittersweet Lenny’s RIPA. Shortly thereafter, we opened up and split a bottle of Espresso Love from Arbor Brewing.

Its immediately evident from the scent that there’s coffee in this, no question. But hey, its a breakfast stout, right?

Generally, I dig it a lot. Its no Breakfast Stout but for $1.99, in my mind you can’t beat it.

Brian had this to say:

“There’s clearly nothing there but coffee. It was a little lighter than I expected. I’ve had it before, but its lighter than your average java stout. Its really dry, in fact. I mean, it finishes like, almost a tart, dry… until you get to the really, espresso, coffee aftertaste. Up against the front of your tounge, its really tart.”

He’s pretty right about that. Having worked at a big-name coffee shop for a couple months now, I would have to say that his characterization of the coffee flavors are more or less right.

All that said, I think I like it more than he does.

Reasonable, tasty, it deserves a 7.

Brian: 7/10
Ian!: 7/10