Parallel 49 Barleywine 2014: Brewed in Vancouver, BC at a strength of 11.8% abv with 61 IBUs, this Barleywine was aged in Whisky barrels for 10 months and bottled into silver wax sealed 22 oz bottles.
Aroma and Appearance: It pours a clear red amber colour with a small amount of carbonation and a very thin layer of foam. The aroma is oak, vanilla, caramel, toffee, whisky booze and hints of cinnamon.
Flavour: Oak resin, vanilla and booze up front featuring a fairly thin body with raisins, dates and toffee in the middle. It finishes with hints of cinnamon, spice, plum and sherry with some floral hop overtones.
Overall Impression: Quite unique for a barleywine, it really drank like a Brandy. This will mellow a bit over time, but I don’t think it will develop too much beyond its flavour profile.
Rating: I still really enjoyed this one, excellent at 8/10. Drinkable now, possible to age it further.
Food Pairing: Like a good Brandy, this would go well with dark chocolate.
In regards to wax sealed bottles, I prefer to open them by melting the wax with a lighter. For this bottle I simply stood it upright, held a lighter up to the wax near the cap and rotated the bottle letting the melted wax seep down the neck of the bottle. I find this method works way better than trying to cut through the wax with a knife as long as you don’t burn anything in the process.
West Coast Beer Geek 
I really enjoyed this one. Great flavour but it was different from most that I have tried. I am sure one of the things that alters the flavour profile some was that they cut the barleywine with Old Boy to bring down the alcohol content as it was just to high. Diluting with a nice dark flavourful ale like that doesnt effect the colour and overall flavour in a detrimental way. To many Barley Wines in BC Are being cut with Pale Ales or IPA’S. Being a lighter colour and blending like this strips the dark fruit notes while giving it a distinct shift towards imperial IPA.