A Barley Wine for Every Day

Bell's Third Coast Old Ale

These two go out to Lemmy Kilmister.

This beer continues my love affair with Bell's. It's supremely malty and heavy. It could smother Saturn. Like a dense bread soaked with brandy. For me, any bittering hops really don't shine. I can't believe this bottle is only a year old, because the beer tastes like it's been around a lot longer (in a not so good way). Really great if you're looking for density.



North Coast Old Stock Ale.

Is it an old ale or a stock ale? It's Old Stock ale. I tend to flip-flop on this beer. At times fantastic and at time too hot. This time around, I couldn't feel less equipped to get a read on it. I would have been better off reversing the drinking order of these two beers because Old Stock was struggling to make an impression. Its candy sweetness is present but less intense when compared to some of the other beers in the thread. Great beer.

These are two 12oz champs. My impressions of these two are making me wonder if I'm suffering from burnout. My wife commented that I'm looking heavier.

 

I love that we both made the same mistake - thinking we drank a 2014 but then realizing it was a 2013. Time flies! I thought, "I had this beer last year," and then it dawned on me, "Oh wait, that was two years ago." Feels like yesterday. I have only had the barley wine (my favorite), standard stout, and coffee stout (I do not like the coffee stout version). I have one new standard stout at the moment. After this month, I will not be in a rush to open it.

 

Great Divide Hibernation Ale and Old Ruffian

It's absolutely fantastic that a US brewery would sell both of these beers in a 12oz format. I would think that most businesses would see it as being redundant. Time to see what the great divide is between these beers. I have had these before but never on the same day. I have always really liked Hibernation.

Both of these are a year old. Both are great rich beers. Old Ruffian is a bit redder and comes across as a bigger version of Hibernation. Old Ruffian is sweeter and hoppier. Hibernation is roastier and tastes slightly of raisins. This bottle of Hibernation had a surprising amount of sediment. I prefer the character of the more approachable Hibernation but folks looking for a little more would do well with Old Ruffian.

In my mind, it would be a mistake to look to these two beers to determine the differences between an old ale and a barley wine. It would be like someone determining the differences between a stout and a porter by examining Sierra Nevada's two beers under those names - something I've seen quite a bit. It's an interpretation of something that isn't concrete (or perhaps not even real). One of many.

 

Stone Grainiac

This is a surprise unannounced beer. I've had an odd relationship with Stone's Stochasticityityity beers lately. The description of HiFi LoFi made me want to try it. It was probably the beer I disliked the most in 2015. The description of Elderberries made me want to try that one too. Don't do it! - I warned myself. I bought it anyway (curiosity) and disliked it totally. Never again! - I tell myself. The description of Grainiac really made me want to try it. You fool! I'm relieved to report that I loved it.

With a name like Grainiac, I thought this beer could be a candidate for the thread. I noticed that it was listed here as an American amber / red ale and that Stone described it as both hoppy and rich/bready. I didn't want another IPA-ish beer in the thread, but I decided to try it. If it tasted like Nugget Nectar, I'd enjoy it but not post about it, if it tasted like a barley wine, I'd include it. Grainiac tasted like neither. In fact, it tasted like nothing that I could relate it to. It was delicious and unusual. It reminded me of a sweeter rye beer, but I don't know if that was an illusion. What I mean is that I couldn't tell if there was a rye spiciness brought by the alternative grains or if that spiciness was from the hops and the beer simply tasted different due to the alternative grains. The hops are really well done here. It must have been tricky getting a hop plan to complement the grain profile but they nailed it. One of a kind and recommended to malt lovers - hence its inclusion.

Happy New Years. I am down to the final five beers and they are all big guns.

 

Broken Bow Barley Wine Ale

I've had mixed results with this local brewery and I would have never gambled on this beer if not for the recommendation in this thread. I decided to take it to a New Year's party and I was a little worried given my track record with the brewery. I still brought it because it just seemed to fit the social occasion (14% ABV in a large corked bottle).

I was relieved that it was rather nice and well-suited to the event (even if I essentially drank the whole thing myself). The best part about having this beer was that I was drinking it when a friend of mine took out his guitar and played me a Kinks song called Alcohol. He began the song by thanking me for introducing him to the song. Coincidentally, one part of the song goes like this:

Who thought I would fall,
A slave to demon alcohol.
Barley wine, pink gin,
He'll drink anything.

When he sang those lyrics, it brought such a smile to my face. Moments like that give me much pleasure. Apologies if people are more interested in tasting notes than song lyrics, but it's not my primary angle when drinking. Unfortunately, there's no poured beer in my picture - I drank it out of the home. It was a reddish-brown with a fine head. The beer had some alcohol burn but was quite drinkable for the ABV. There was some raisin flavor and some definite sweetness. The barrel aging felt rough. The beer didn't convey clear intention in this regard. Any influence from the barrels didn't get in the way of the beer, but it didn't feel like an intentional understatement either. Not something I'd grab again, but it was a total pleasure to have for an evening. Happy New Year.

 

Firestone Walker Sucaba

My first beer of 2016 and a new beer to me. The beer tastes of raisins, black cherries, and a tiny hint of coconut. It's really great. On one hand, it's just another barrel-aged barley wine... nothing to go crazy over... but on the other hand, it really separates itself from the pack with its balance (which was surprising given its reputation). The cohesion of the barrel aging with the initial beer is expertly done. There's a fine line between too much and too little wood and/or spirit influence. Sucaba perfectly walks the line.

 

In my New Year's Eve post, I failed to mention that the Kinks song was released in 1971. The barley wine reference is the only nod to beer in the lyrics. When they performed the song live, Ray Davies supposedly sprayed beer on the audience on one occasion at least. I am under the impression that barley wine was a drink associated with old ladies at that point. If that's accurate, it adds more meaning to the lyrics. When did barley wine become unfashionable with old ladies?



Midnight Sun Arctic Devil

I love the name of this beer and the wolverine reference. This beer is a bit of a monster. Wood is noticeable. So is the alcohol. This beer impressed me more in the past - when consumed in different company. I can't help but to compare it to Sucaba since I had that the day before. Arctic Devil is more of a sipper but less rewarding. It was also more expensive but much easier to obtain. A great beer, but one that failed to shine.

Tomorrow, just in time for New Beer Sunday, I have a pair of J.W. Lees beers waiting for me.

 

J.W. Lees Harvest Ale and Sherry Cask Harvest Ale

The bottle of regular Harvest illustrates a reason for this thread. It claims the beer was "brewed as a celebration of the brewers' art," and it features the signature of the head brewer. If there was a time when barley wines stood as a symbol of a brewer's crowning achievement, it might be slipping away. I have little doubt that if this thread featured imperial stouts, there would be more opinions added to it.

I've had Harvest Ale before but I didn't think much of it. This bottle really scratched an itch. Easily a highlight of this lineup. The beer has a reputation here, and frankly, I didn't think this bottle would live up to it. I was wrong. Given it's cost, I think I didn't want it to taste as good as it does. It exceeds a $1 per oz. The beer is a dark amber with an almost nonexistent head. It's rich and with notes of vanilla, caramel and wood. It's sweet without being cloying. It's packed with sticky flavor and it doesn't achieve this through the appropriation of used barrels. Everything in this beer fits together. I might have liked this bottle more than other tries because of the age. Fantastic.

The Sherry Cask version is new to me. I've had the Calvados version and found it to be too sweet and over the top. The Sherry version is just the opposite. It's a case where the original beer feels like it has more life to it and the altered beer feels muted. It's slightly darker and murkier than Harvest. It's very hard to pick out a Sherry influence. Sherry is also a drink that I have little experience with. I prefer the regular version to this beer.

 

Sorry folks, this thread isn't quite dead yet (but it almost is). There will no longer be any new beers (I think), but I plan on revisiting a few:



I'm not planning on drawing this out with boring individual beer posts. I've brought back a few I wanted to revisit. I also threw in a McEwans for fun (a delicious beer). I'm hesitant to drink my last Tally-Ho, but if I save it for last, it will be a nice bookend to the thread (at least that's what I'm telling myself so I feel OK about opening it). My goal of slimming down the stash for 2016 has failed miserably - as always. While out hunting for barley wines last month, I found other delights along the way, and unfortunately, I'm beyond max capacity for beer at the moment. 2016 starting off with a depressingly predictable situation.