Uinta Anniversary Barley Wine Ale

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Uinta Anniversary Barley Wine Ale cover

Uinta is, like most Utah breweries, kind of an interesting anomaly. Go into any area grocery store here, and you can pick up their Anniversary Barley Wine Ale no problem. Try doing the same in Uinta's hometown of Salt Lake City however, and you're out of luck. The dreaded 4% ABV rule still lingers in Utah, and a trip to the liquor store is required to find anything with just a little bit of a kick to it.

Sucks being them, I suppose, as the Anniversary Barley Wine Ale is a pretty stellar beer, one we all easily should be able to find.

So what do we got here? A nice looking beer, definitely. Some might even say it's just a little sexy, what with its dark amber colors and a lightly tanned head.

Sniff, and the alcohol hits you over the nose, but it is definitely backed up by strong notes of fruit and caramel. The hops are right there too. A lot of stuff is going on here, and I'll be darned if I can find anything not to be happy about.

Flavor wise the sweet caramel caresses your tongue, with the hops following right behind. Toward the end you'll find the fruits and 10.4% alcohol playing nicely together. It's damn tasty without ever being too sweet. The word "effervescence" comes to mind.

A great ale, then, and one I'm sure many people in Utah miss out on. You, however, can easily find it, and that's a good thing.