BEER REVIEW: 379

BREWER: Hogs Back, Surrey, England

STYLE: Barley Wine

ABV: 9%

VESSEL: 330ml brown bottle

X: @HogsBackBrewery

INSTAGRAM: hogsbackbrewery

DATE OF POST: 11th January 2025

 

SAMMY SAY’S…

I had high hopes for A Over T, a barley wine that promised sophistication and bold flavours. Sadly, my experience didn’t quite live up to those expectations.

Let us begin with one of the A’ over T’s strongest suits: its presentation. The packaging is top-notch—suave and striking, with a red and black colour scheme that’s as appealing as it is stylish.

The nose offers promise with a rich, sweet scent that hints at what might follow. There’s a pleasing nuttiness and barleyness on the aroma front that continues the promise given by the packaging.

Unfortunately, the drinking is where A Over T falters. It leans too heavily on sweetness, leaving little room for complexity or evolution. It’s one-dimensional, and the initial nutty, sweet barley notes fail to progress into anything memorable. A faint bitter finish tries to round things off but doesn’t do enough to save the palate experience.

A Over T isn’t the worst barley wine I’ve had, but it’s far from the best. It’s a beer that excels in presentation but struggles to deliver where it counts: in the glass.

Sammy’s Rating: 58%

 

JYMI SAY’S…

First up we have to talk about the name of this 9% Barley Wine. A over T. I mean it is just a work of total genius. A over T stands for Aromas over Tongham, Tongham being the Surrey village where Hogs Back are based. And it’s then when the brewers are conjuring up this brew the aromas over said village would, I’m sure, be delightful. However A over T is also a colloquial English idiom meaning Arse over Tit, which in turn means falling over in a pretty spectacular way… as you almost certainly would if you took too many 9% Barley Wines on board.

So as I said, the name for this beer is just brilliant.

Second up. The packaging. Also, brilliant. So smart. So well presented. From the colours used to the varying fonts to the lay out and abundance of info… they’ve just nailed it.

And so to the beer itself…

A big boy barley is always going to be bring a certain bang to to the beer drinker. The question is always, for me anyway, how will the balance be. Bad Barleys can sometimes be too sweet. There can also, sometimes, not really be enough complexity going on for what should always be a pretty complex beer.

And because of the insanely good name and presentation of A over T, it saddens me to say that this brew is too sweet and not complex enough to excite me.

That’s not to say that it’s a bad beer or nasty to drink, because it’s not. It’s good, just not any better than that. And as mentioned that resulted in disappointment after the prodigious build up.

A over T brings caramel, almond, cherry and blackcurrant in the flavour wave. It’s very rich, very sweet and incredibly cloying up front but this does settle down mid drink to be fair. This eventually progresses to a comforting warm and settling aftertaste. It is complex enough but unfortunately didn’t take me on the journey I was hoping for, but still, one to savour in front of the fire at the end of the night.

And when all is said and done, though I wouldn’t necessarily recommend, I would certainly not want to put you off trying one. It’s good and for you, could well be great.

Jymi’s Rating: 70%

 

MUSE ON BOOZE RATING: 64%

MOB review next weekend: BLACK IPA by BRAZENOR’S BREWS

Sammy & Jymi – Musing on Booze weekly since 2017

X: @museonbooze

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