Young’s Old Nick is a traditional English barleywine, though it may surprise people to find out it’s only 7.2% alcohol—in this day and age of super-strength beers, 7.2% sure doesn’t seem like much. Quite the contrary, it fits the traditional style exactly—and it’s not just the alcohol strength that makes a barleywine.

Appearance: Deep red color, copper-brown at the edges. Head is thick, creamy, light beige. It has a very nice all-around look to it.

Smell: Surprisingly fruity—pears, plums. Malt in the background is sweet and rich… almost candy on the nose.

Taste: Figs, licorice, dark honey, candied fruits, coffee (light), burnt sugar, caramel. Very sweet, very winey and brandy-ish. Every sip is just a BAM! of complex candied flavors.

Mouthfeel: Very smooth and thick. Complex interplay of textures and bites and flavors.

Overall: A real treat. Young’s is staying traditional and showing all the extreme upstarts how it’s done.

On BeerAdvocate, it scores 87 out of 100 with 98% approval. On RateBeer, it scores 3.58 out of 5 and is in their 88th percentile.