Rock Art Ridge Runner Ale
7.5% abv Strong, Dark and Smooth, hold on to your hat cause you’ll lose your feet on this one!" Brewed with pale, dark crystal, Munich, flaked barley, black and chocolate malts. Hops include Cascade, Crystal, Challenger and Perle. " 6 malts...4 hops, no wonder you can’t tell its 7.5% Available in 6 packs and now in 22 oz. bottles.
3
262 reviews
Morrisville, United States
Community reviews
nice malty slight chocolate aroma. dark red/brown with little head. taste is of darker caramel malts roasted barley. good body
Bottle from Lisai’s. Amber with ring and lace. Mild aroma of woody hops and caramel brown sugar and fruitcake. Burnt caramel and and some tangy fruity sweetness with medium bitter woody and herbal bitterness. Fairly dry (a little cold). Medium body. Not a bad beer, but I wouldn’t call it a barley wine. Definitely a better IPA than Long Trail’s new Sick Day. Very good, but points off for style because if people came looking for a barley wine, I would not really recommend this one.
Thinner body for the style. Mainly malt and earth complexion. Some dark fruits. I can barely pick out the barley and chocolate, it’s coming across as dirt to me. The taste tapers away leaving a malty residue. Inoffensive but uninspiring as well.
Pours a deep maroon with a small team head. Smells like veggies, also some grass and alcohol. Better flavors, intensely malty but with a distracting stale hoppiness. Some welcome roast notes, especially in the aftertaste. Thick and smooth, just doesn’t smell or taste right.
12 oz bottle pours amber with a off white head. Aroma of malts and fruit. Taste is caramel and grains.
Un vin d’orge mince, aux couleurs plutôt pâles, avec un pétillement presque frétillant ; en nez, ce sont de petits fruits rouges, ainsi qu’un peu d’alcool (malgré son taux assez bas), Les saveurs sont justes, quoiqu’un peu retenues, timides. Dans son style, elle est en entrée de gamme, un vin d’orge de débutant en quelque sorte. Agréable, mais loin d’être marquant.
More like a brown ale. Lots of caramel in the aroma and flavor. Very lively carbonation. Not much of a barley wine.
Pours Amber with a thin off white head. Aroma of dried fruit. Flavor hints at caramel and fruit. Just ok.
Great flavor and smoothness with a lot of character... Lacks some of the boldness of other barley wines i have tasted but overall a great beer
12oz bottle via John. Dark, semi-ruby amber with a light beige head that fades to nothing. Slightly stale and wet hops, stale caramel, pear, light alcohol, thin and light carbonation, off malty finish. Did not enjoy this one - not well balanced and the maltiness is not pleasant.
10/10/2013. On tap. Copper color with a tan head. Aromas of sweet malt, dried fruit, caramel. A little mild for a barley wine, yet the alcohol never shows through. Not bad.
Smells more malty than hoppy. Don’t care for how it looks also. Taste caramel and somewhat chocolately. Flavor isn’t impressive at all. A creamy texture is its only redeming value. Avoid this one and choose a different Barley wine.
12 0z. bottle. Pours dark brown, filtered. Head is surprisingly light for such a dark malt, lacing and head retention are average but ok when you consider the 7.5% ABV. Sell is musty hops, some dark fruit (plum perhaps?) citrus and yeast. taste is bitter malt with a bit of sweetness followed by increasing bittering hops, maybe a bit of raisin in there. This is a very drinkable beer, but when I rate this based on the style, something is way off. Not enough alcohol or malt complexity to be a barley wine. Too low in ABV to age it, which is one of the best characteristics of a barley wine. Not a bad beer, just think they should call it something different.
Bottle at home. Pours clear tawny to brown with a medium, frothy beige head, medium retention with light lacing. Aroma is cookie, caramel, and nutty malt, peach and pear fruity esters with spicy hops. Flavor is malt and hop balanced, medium bitterness, alcohol spiciness, and a dry finish. Full body and medium carbonation.
Pours a medium reddish copper color with a smallish off white head that quickly dissipates to a ring on top. Smells of caramel toffee and light bready grainy malt. Light sulfur and a hint of earth with a light butterscotch round out the nose. The flavor is biscuity bready grainy maltiness with bits of toffee and butterscotch. Light earthy hops flavor with a bit of sulfur provides a counter the the malty sweetness. Medium body with a moderate level of carbonation and a sweet slick mouthfeel. Nice enough barleywine, the bready maltiness is nice but the toffee butterscotch is a bit too much on my palette.
Red/orange amber with thin head riming the glass; great aroma of malty sweet caramelishness and touch of hop spicnessishness; feels rich and foamy yet crisp; flava is a tease between hops grain/barley and fruity/sugary sweetness.
this is what I love about this style- when done right, it has the full spectrum of beer characteristics malty & hoppy; rich yet crisp; sweet yet dry; easy to drink yet strong. Rock Art, you nailed it!
Poured from 12 oz. bottle in Stowe, VT.
Clear amber-orange red with thin khaki head and sparse lacing.
Aroma of caramel, bread, lightly roasted malt, toffee and musty floral hops.
Taste of bread, caramel, musty floral hops and brown sugar. Slightly astringent. The musty hops leave an unpleasant flavor in my mouth for several minutes.
Medium/full body and medium carbonation.
This beer does not work for me. The sweet malts and the musty hops do not play well together and neither is pleasant on its own. Not an enjoyable beer. Downs the drain it goes.
From a 12 bottle shared at home. Vintage 2005. Pours smoky sour dark cherries in the nose. Surprisingly thin textured, with some chocolate and toffee notes. So, so. Maybe better fresh?
2013.01.03 - Rock Art Ridge Runner - 12oz bottle from Woodstock VT store in goblet. Pours deep amber or caramel in color. Little to no head, but slightly vigorous ring of bubbles around edge hangs out for a bit. Aroma straight out of the cold bottle is a big of the starchy aroma you get from things like Old Stock Ale, mixed with a bit of sweetness. Taste is all on the back end to me. First touch is kind of watered down, followed basically by dilute bitterness. Taste does not follow nose much at all. As others noted, a decent barley wine bug not a great one. For the price ($1.65 for 12oz bottle) not bad but... meh. If you want a lower-alcohol barley wine (why?) that is inexpensive, give it a shot. Not a likely repeat purchase.
Decent brew. Pours murky red with a tan head. Aroma is mostly sweety caramel. Taste its caramel with a bitter hop finish.
Strong sweet aroma, with hints of fruit. Pours a clear dark ruby, with a full white head. Not much in the way of malt flavor, just some sweetness, with a moderate bitter finish. Slightly slick mouthfeel, with a moderate body. Not a bad barley wine, but not a great one either.
Location/Date:Bottle on October 28th, 2012.
Appearance: Pours a maroon that while opaque from a distance, looks thin when looked at closely.
Aroma: Aroma of light caramel malt.
Taste: Nearly no bitterness, caramel malt, some weird nearly soapy taste on the end.
Palate:Medium light body.
Summary: Thanks for the beer Ben! The last of the Ticks Pack from October 2012 DC visit. Something about the end of this beers taste just ruins it for me. It’s nearly soapy, and no I don’t think it’s cilantro as I actually can taste cilantro.
Location: 12 oz bottle from Buy Rite, 9/19/12
Aroma: The nose is sweet malts/caramel mostly, light roast/toast notes, and hints of fruit
Appearance: It pours a dark reddish-brown color with a small head and minimal lace
Flavor: The taste is moderately sweet, heavy malty, and fairly one-dimensional, finishes a little buttery
Palate: Light-medium bodied, a hint sticky, fairly thin, with an average carbonation, and a short duration
Overall Impression:
I wasn’t a huge fan of this Barley Wine. It isn’t terrible, but it isn’t really all that good either.
12oz bottle pours clear amber with copper edges and thin tan head. The aroma offers up muted pine hops mixed with lesser amounts of raisins, prunes and a bit of cherry like fruity esters. The taste is similar as the pine hop like note is followed by a more vague resiny hop bitterness surrounded on all sides by sweet dark fruity esters. Beneath these notes lurk some booziness and a touch of caramel. The after taste is sort of resiny hop like as well as mineral dryness.
Little head with a light brown color. Good carbonation, not overly carbonated. Beer appears unfiltered. Slight alcohol aroma but doesn't have heavy alcohol taste. Sweet flavor to begin then light bitter to finish. Medium body with a slightly oily texture, soft carbonation.
12oz bottle in a snifter. Pours copper/brown with a light tan head. Aroma of cartel malts, a little cereal, and some light hops. Flavor the same but something is a little off. Average texture. A decent beer but it could be way better.
On tap at the brewery in Morrisville, VT. Pours a clear, light brown colored body with a finger-width, very frothy and creamy, light tan head that dissipates slowly and leaves a solid lacing. Aroma is earthy with caramel malts giving this a moderate sweetness along with some light dark fruits, a touch of citrus, and a hint of smoke. Flavor is similar. Lots of earth up front with some caramel. A few dark fruits and a light citrus note in the middle with a hint of smoke coming out at the end. Finishes dry and earthy with a moderate bitterness and a light caramel sweetness. Lengthy aftertaste following a medium, slightly thin feeling body at times and a soft, moderate carbonation. Overall, a bit thin for a barleywine; more like a bigger brown. Earthy with a light caramel and balanced throughout, just nothing special. Not bad though.
Yeesh, this had a lot of issues. Smells like old cider and raisins. Color is fine but not overly appealing. The taste is alcohol and raisins, not very enjoyable.
Luminous amber body with a nice, flat cream top. Sharp malt breath permeates the olfactory senses. Subsequent breaths of rye and passionfruit soon follow.The body is characterized by passionfruit and an abundance of fruity hop. The experience then veers with sharply toasted crystal grains leading to a fruit punch and tannic grain finish.
Pours a dark ruby red color that is murky but not cloudy. with small head that quickly dissipates that leaves a little lacing. Smell is very strong with dark fruit aromas and some funk. Taste of German malts with a small coffee flavor as well with some contributing hops. Sweet and bitter notes on the tongue with a very long finish. Full body with soft carbonation. Slightly creamy. I didn’t like this on the first sip, but I grew to like it by halfway through. Very complex.