Class of '88 Barleywine

I am also wondering about this. And where/which stores has it started hitting? This and parabola are my next on list beers to grab and worried about how long they will last (and how this beer itself is).

 

It was at Brouwers last weekend and I think 99 Bottles has it in, some of their employees were checking it on Untappd a couple days ago.

 

I bought and tried one bottle. Not a fan. Thin and overly carbonated, very little malt backbone, weird finish as if it were a double stella artois or something. I guess closer to bspa than barleywine.

 

At Hard Liver it drank like a double pilsner, really disappointing IMO. Agreed fully with kevw, not quite sure what they were going for.

 

Anyone know when this stuff hits Portland,OR? Havent seen any hits on twitter yet...
A-

 

It's a collaborated recipe of the three breweries following the barley wine guidelines of Fred Eckhardt's book The Essentials of Beer Style. That book also came out in 1988.

Sounds like each brewery used different hops and malts though.

 

I guess that makes more sense now, however if they were going for something akin to HotD Fred they failed.

 

Not a fan of the North Coast version. I really liked the Deschutes release. I'm expecting the Rogue version to be a mess.

 

Why would they be trying to make something akin to Fred? Fred was an original recipe with I believe 10 malts (including rye) and 10 hops. It is also golden in color. It has nothing to do with Fred's style guidelines.

 

Got a bottle of the Deschutes version at Whole Foods RSQ. Haven't tried it yet.

 

Made a poor assumption. My bad. Vinella made me do it.

Point of clarification - I have only tried the North Coast version.

 

Deschutes, 22oz, $7.50, $.34/oz
North Coast, 25.4oz C&C, $12, $.47/oz

Anyone seen pricing on the Rogue version?

Why someone puts a cork & cage on a barleywine is beyond me...

 

So they can charge more?

 

I haven't heard anything about Rogue bottling their version, period. It seems odd that they'd miss out on a chance to sell some expensive painted 750ml bottles, but one would assume that if they were going to release any of it in bottles they'd do it at roughly the same time as the other breweries.

Then again, the Peanut Butter Banana beer is apparently available at retailers all over the country except in Oregon, so who knows what they're up to.

 

I had both the Deschutes and Rogue releases at the Deschutes Brewpub this past weekend. I'm not a huge fan of the beer itself, but Deschutes definitely fit my pallet a lot better than Rogue's. Huge visible difference in how the beers look, Deschutes was much cleaner overall. Rogue's had a real astringent back end and I didn't think the flavors popped as much. Just my take.

 

Avoiding the formation of a mob of tasters after they try that concoction?

 

The Rogue version is available at the NW Flanders pub.

 

Bottles, or just draft?