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The color has deepened to a medium/dark amber. There is no longer more than a hint of a head. I smell deep, complex malt and dark fruit: raisins, currants, and dates. I taste those things as well as a sweetness I do not remember at the first tasting. The alcohol does not seem to have gone away; it still warms one. There is also a coffee note to it and a licorice flavor which has developed since I opened the bottle about a half hour ago. That developing oxidative flavor suggests to me that this beer is near the end of it's life so, if you still have a couple of bottles in your cellar, soon may be time to enjoy them.

All in all, I'm very happy that I laid down some bottles of this. My initial hope was that it might become drinkable. My patience has rewarded me with a wonderful bottle of beer with which to finish my weekend.

Nice dark gold color. Almost microscopic bubbles giving a long-lasting head.

Aroma and flavor of hops and malt. Interesting hop aroma and flavor because they used locally-grown hops that give citrus, resin, fall leaves, and earth notes. (The citrus and resin notes are reminiscent of Cascades hops but are quite subdued by comparison......more orange than grapefruit for instance.)

Drinking this at cool room temperature (65F?) makes the malt quite apparent: big, mouth-filling, rich, and complex. It almost balances the hops - making it an American-style barleywine.

Thed alcohol is definitely present but does not overpower any of the other ingredients.

In all, quite a good beer for a winter evening ...... but certainly not a session beer. This 22 oz bottle shall be enough for now.

The 2009 Holidale is "not so bad, could be worse". Actually, it's a good American-style Barleywine:

Clear dark gold. Small head that lasts a little while (very hard to do better at high alcohol levels). Big malt and bigger hops in the nose and mouth. Alcohol is quite noticable (9% ?). Lots of fruity esters. Overall, well balanced (although my personal taste would request less hop bitterness - I prefer the less bitter English-style).

I've been waiting for years for BBS to release a Holidale that was ready to drink when released (not by waiting 5+ years for it to mellow into drinkability). I'm happy to see that they did so this year.

It's fruity and sweet up front, then dries out in the mouth and the dark fruit flavors come out along with the alcohol warming. The flavor keeps building until the mouth and nose are full of a glorious warm fruitiness with the malt still resting on the tongue. There is little apparent hop presence (although it must be there or this would certainly cloy).

I won't take back anything I may have said about it in 2001 ("hot", "harsh", and "undrinkable" come immediately to mind), but my patience and the $4.95/bottle that it cost then have been rewarded. I'll probably open the other one in a few more years.

TO: Chris & Gary - Please consider brewing cabin fever year round. "Things are looking up".