Cellaring American Barleywine

Old Guardian is not being released in 2017. Stone said it's not necessarily retired, but not on the schedule for 2017.

 

Rather than start a new thread I thought I'd add to this with my question: what are your experiences with Bell's Third Coast Old Ale versus SN Bigfoot? Vintage Beers by Patrick Dawson says that the best range for Bigfoot is 3-5 years; I bought a six pack and intend to follow that. He didn't single out the Bell's and I was wondering what anyone who's cellared it thinks.

 

I think Bells has a thicker/sweeter body and tastes better than Bigfoot aged, whether or not one is better than the other is purely subjective (in other words it is up to personal tastes). Bigfoot does have a more “pithy” (white part inside an orange peel) bitterness to it, that I can at least tell does not fade with time, but gets drowned out by the growing maltiness over time. You can’t go wrong aging either one.

 

Thank you for that response. I'm not a big hop maven so increasing the malt presence is absolutely my goal along with the other aging enhancements. I was intrigued by the review of Bell's on the April thread so just picked up a six of that.

 

Now comes the worst part!

 

I haven't had Third Coast in a long time. If I recall correctly, it's not as hoppy as Bigfoot. I need to find some and add it to my new larger fridge/cellar.

 

I hope that Barleywine ages well... I have 8 bottles of various Firestone Walkers in boxes with the oldest at 5 years old. Last month I cracked a 3 year old Old Numbskull and drain poured it. I have a 4 pack of Double or Nothing that is 2 years old and several oddballs. I hope the Old Numbskull was just an anomaly.

 

Just opened mine from 2/19/14 and it tasted great

 

I haven't had many barleywines that got me excited, but some third coast is tasty. Bought a sixer of bigfoot without ever having it and I loved that. The hoppyness definitely worked for my tastebuds. If I knew how good it was I would have bought another sixer... and I wouldn't have aged it.

 

Bells Third Coast is a lot less aggressive than Bigfoot in terms of hops, and therefore doesn't oxidize as badly. I have had Bigfoot in a vertical tasting going back to 1998, there never was a point that I liked it. As the violently assertive hops faded, they became straight wet cardboard. The other people in the tasting were split between hopheads and not so much, and only the hopheads enjoyed the older bottles.

 

I couldn't age the bigfoot I bought this year, drank em all in a couple weeks. I enjoyed third coast for obviously different reasons. Despite liking two different styles, I've tried some barleywines and wheat wines that are just too sickeningly sweet for me. Maybe with those, aging is the answer? Or I'm just picky... not sure yet.

 

English barleywines are much more malt forward and richer, thicker, and sweeter. They're great fresh and fantastic aged too. American style barleywines to me are just barley heavy imperial IPAs. They age horribly in my opinion.

 

Though classified as a Double IPA (for sheer marketing) dogfish 120 is for all intents and purposes an American Barleywine. And one that I'd certainly add it to the barleywine cellar if space provides.

 

Sipping on a 2013 Bigfoot. Picking up some butterscotch, is kinda astringent, not all that enjoyable. Oh it still has a biting bitterness.

No more aged Bigfoots for me.