Port Aged Barleywine by Low Road Brewing is a quite approachable BJCP Category 33B, Specialty Wood-Aged Beer, with the base style being BJCP Category 17D, English Barleywine, from the 2015 BJCP guidelines. While the port character is somewhat subtle, the base English barleywine is actually quite exceptional and the overall beer is very enjoyable.

Caramel notes from the toasted, aged malt is the first thing noted in the aroma, with a hint of a complementary port wine character behind this. The beer is an amber color with golden highlights. It is slightly hazy with a beige, small-bubble head with fair retention. 

The flavor has mild aged malt complexity up front with a hint of raisin and caramel flavors and a low to moderate port character up front. The hop character has a somewhat light-to-moderate hop bitterness but little hop flavor. The overall flavor profile is quite smooth throughout the drink and does diminish a bit towards the finish. The body is medium, which is appropriate for the style, and the carbonation is moderate to low, which again is fine for this beer style. What stands out in this offering is how extremely clean the overall fermentation character is. It is so clean that it seems lagered. The alcohol in this beer is hidden extremely well and could easily sneak up on you if you are not careful – particularly if you have a crowler of the brew to enjoy!

This is a clean, approachable English barleywine – about as clean an example of the style as I have ever seen. One quibble is that the port character could have been a bit higher, but considering the flavor level of the barleywine, the balance is still pretty good.