Night Fire
Lost Grove Brewing

On-tap at the new LG location, pours mostly clear blonde with minimal head and good lacing. This one is fun in a small dose, very sweet and sugary, malty and biscuity and rich with lots of body and barrel character without being too aggressive or over-the-top boozy. Hints of earthy rye spice as well. Well done.

cool that they made this one, a rye barrel aged barleywine, but it left a bit to be desired for me, and frankly was the only beer i drank in here on our recent visit that i wasnt supremely stoked on, or at least recognizing some improvement over time in, these guys are doing it right these days! this one is slightly pale for the style, between tarnished brass and copper, short but dense white head collecting on top, good to see a little carbonation activity in a barleywine, these often run a little more still but i like the life. the nose on this is quite sweet, honey, toffee, concentrated grain sugar, and not a lot of depth, its got some toasted breadiness but little else below that, and its slightly estery to me, maybe the barrels got a little warm or something during maturation, but im getting a slightly stressed higher gravity yeast strain. it lacks the old world thing in the flavor from the grain or yeast, so not english, but its not really all that hoppy either, and kind of thick, less american then, almost more in that catch all american strong ale space to me. the rye barrels are a cool choice, and i like the oak all dripping from this, but the earthy spice of the rye i was expecting gives way pretty fast to the sweetness overwhelming the palate, and this ends up being a slow sipper and a hard one to get through, even before the alcohol, which is not so subtle as this warms. the wood mellows it some, the lack of malt heaviness is actually cool, but the sweetness and the rye dont quite work right together and there is some refinement left to find with this one. the intensity of the flavor is oddly overwhelming after a little bit too. perhaps more time in the barrel would have helped, perhaps blending in some drier fresher beer could have relaxed it a little too, but this is set up to age pretty well, and glad to see it packaged in glass to facilitate that. so many breweries putting cellar worthy beer in cans these days, drives me mad. anyway, not my favorite, nor their best, but original enough to be worth a try when you stop in down there...

edit: i liked this a little better from the bottle, still insanely sugary even for the style, but the blonde malt base is cool, and i think it allows the rye barrel to shine a little more than a heavier mash might. i think some years in the bottle would do good things for it, but it seems more refined now already than it did on tap. soft carbonation, lots of pale malty nuance, and tons of wood. really flavorful and a little better than i gave it credit for originally, increasing overall score...

edit: not sure if this was made again or if they are still serving the original batch, now in summer 2025. it seems a little deeper and richer on the grain side now, darker in color for sure, a touch oxidized, less overtly alcoholic, still some spiciness and obvious rye character, more mature and aged seeming to me at this point, my guess is they made some tweaks to the malt bill and i think it presents as more traditional barleywine, more depth and points of interest, if age is the only variable this is a radical transformation. i would grade it out about the same, but it think it fits the style expectations a little better, warms up well too, seems like a different beer now...

Bottle from Boise Co-op. Dark golden pour, cloudy, skimpy head. Boozy aroma, rum, woody, strong. Taste is malty, woody, smooth, latent heat. BOozy but not overwhelmiing.