I’ve had 2 of Victory’s winter seasonals so far… Storm King Stout and Old Horizontal Barleywine. Unfortunately, I think they both need aging before they’re really good. I liked them both, but they seemed like they could both use some good mellowing out for a bit.
The Storm King Stout is their Russian Imperial Stout. It’s a thick, full bodied dark black stout with a tan head. Has a nice roasted flavor, with a lot of hops, but the bitterness, both from the hops and the roasted/coffee flavors could use some mellowing. I bought a 6 pack and have had 2 of them. I’m planning on aging at least 2 of them for a year and the other 2 I might hang on to even longer. It has a “best by” date of 9/25/2012. Apparently, they expect it to last a while. I don’t think I’ll hang onto them that long, but I will definitely hang onto them for a while.
The Old Horizontal is their American Barleywine. It’s a full bodied reddish amber color beer with an oily feel to it. It’s almost a little too oily and thick for my tastes. There’s a flavor to it that I just can’t put my finger on. I, honestly, wasn’t overly crazy about it, but I also wasn’t overly disappointed either. I think with some aging it can mellow out a bit. There were a bit too many hops flavors coming through and towards the end the alcohol really came through. Both of those should mellow out in a year or 2. This also had a “best by” date of 2012, and at 11% ABV, it should be just fine 5 years from now. As I only bought one of them, I’ll have to buy a couple more to age. Hopefully Nikki’s still has this one.