Barleywine Appreciation Thread (2022)

Here’s a Cigar City Brewing rarity from 2019. Aged perfectly. Damn near a Cocktail.,.

Opened at 50°, poured into my Great Divide snifter. No head at all. Killer nose. Peaches. Dark fruit. Dark molasses. First sip is just flat out beautiful & overwhelming. Sweet up front, then the spicy rum barrel dries it all out, leaving a long and impressive mouthwatering feel. Nice heat at 14% ABV.
Spin. Repeat. This is magnifique.,. a true slow sipper, wish I could share a hit with you all.,.

 

Cigar city continues to have an incredible barrel program, with their barleywines being particularly underrated.

 

Around the Bend Proximal from 2019.........


4.15/5 rDev +7%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25
by ZebulonXZogg from Illinois

Pours a murky reddish brown, small reddish khaki head fades to a ring. Nose gets some booze, candy, sugars and some hops. Some serious flavors emerge as this warms, molasses, vanilla, some fruit & booze. This is 13% BA Barleywine, and the heat is evident as it warms. It seems a bit thin for the style, but I'm just getting into Barleywines. Sold as a 2fer with its 2020 sibling. Tasty stuff for sure!

Around the Bend is a Chicago Brewer, this beer was aged in Rye Whiskey barrels from Route Spirits.

 

Follow up to Life Ain’t Fair: … and the World is Mean.

Fuuuuuck yeeeeah. Tomorrow’s a bastard but tonight is the beans. The beans, I say!

 

was beginning to wonder if OSA would go unmentioned in this thread.
a couple of months back i cracked a 2007.

 

Second Sin A Life Well Lived
English-style barleywine aged 18 months in a Buffalo Trace barrel

Heard of this one yesterday in a regional forum and ran out to grab a couple bottles. Glad I did.

It pours a ruddy, amber-brown with a thin, soupy, khaki-colored cap that quickly settles into a messy crown. No real lacing to speak of.

Leather, cola, toffee, caramel and distant plum, cocoa and pipe smoke show in the aroma.

Similar flavors carry over to the taste, but with vanilla, cherry and moderately-strong alcohol heat added to the mix. There’s also a slight herbal note and hint of earthy bitterness. Caramel-vanilla is the most prominent characteristic, though.

Very slick, silky feel with a light carbonation and some chewy heft to it. World-class mouthfeel, IMO.

After trying a couple of their other beers yesterday, I was a bit worried this would be mediocre, but they hit it out of the park. Excellent blend of old school depth and new school sweetness. Definitely recommended.

 

What is the cost on this as a case?

Enjoy

 

For 24, that’s not a bad price. Maybe I can find a six pack.

Enjoy

 

Just had a Beerburg Brewing Mugworts Barleywine - very herbal and rustic with a light feel. Care need be taken because it is very easy to drink but 13% ABV. Beerburg is almost just across the road from Jester King. If you make it out that way, this brewery is worth the stop.

 

@Beersnake1 I feel bad tagging you, since I wasn't duly impressed, but I know you know that this says nothing other than my opinion of the beer. I am very grateful for the opportunity. Thank you very much.



Opened this last night. As @Resistance88 , 'Lord Asshat, The Overseer of Asshats' has stated, this beer is sweet, and it is very much on the raisin-prune side of the spectrum flavorwise. I won't be quite so harsh on the beer. I think that it is tasty, but the flavor is a bit strong for me for the format, and more than anything the beer is kind of one-note without that Barrel Presence.

Wait, say what? Without the barrel presence? But this beer IS BA'd! Correct, but I can't really seem to taste much from the barrel. Moreover, although there is a warming in the chest from consuming this beer, the warming reminds me much more of a high alcohol non-ba beer than the warming associated from whiskey, which I do get in many BA beers that have a strong barrel presence.

If this beer was just a barleywine, I'd give it a 4.75. But for a BA barleywine, I can't give it more than a 4.25. It's just lacking what it self-describes itself to be. -And for the price tag, I think it is overpriced for what it is (in it's current form. I understand based on @snaotheus comments and great feedback that these used to be much better. So, at one time I can imagine this being more 'worth' the money. But - to me - in it's current form...it's not.)

 

Nice write-up from Jeff Alworth on forgotten traditions & British fungus, as applied to “vatted strong ales”

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Lost, Stock & Barrel: The Forgotten Funk of Old Ales | Craft Beer & Brewing (beerandbrewing.com)


"It was once indispensable to their refined character, but Brettanomyces is rarely involved with oak-aged barleywines these days—and that’s not all they’ve lost since the 1800s…Contemporaneous accounts of these beers litter the historical record. These were vatted strong ales sold under various terms, and attempts to differentiate among stock ale, old ale, and barleywine, for example, are more modern fetish then historical practice"

 

That article made me thirsty.

 

I had this bottle last night and it blew me away. Double barrel aged for a total of 30 months. It cracked my top 25 all time list (top 5 English barleywine).



22oz bottle poured into a snifter

A- pours a viscous deep brown with a one-finger foamy off-white head that disappears to leave nothing behind

S- as expected, huge barrel aroma on the nose; barrel juice, sharp old oak that lends notes of coconut, vanilla, caramel and toffee. Undertones of leather, tobacco, old books, brown sugar, booze soaked raisins and figs and chocolate. Seems to grow in complexity as it warms

T- rich, sweet and malty up front with bold notes of caramel, toffee & brown sugar. Mid-palate brings out bold, complex, but not overpowering barrel notes; wet oak, barrel juice, vanilla, toasted coconut and more emphasis on the caramel. As it nears the finish, dark fruit notes of raisins, figs and black cherries arise, along with notes of cherry tobacco. Lingers of rich barrel, caramel and toffee

M- medium body with low carbonation leads to a slightly syrupy mouthfeel that turns creamy into a warming finish

O- this one blew me away, I couldn't find a single flaw in the taste, absolutely outstanding

4/4.75/5/4.5/4.75= 4.78

 

So I rated Blithering Idiot back in 2012. At that time gave it one of my lowest scores ever at a lowly 1.5 (No writeup however). Revisited yesterday 10 years later. Thought it was quite delicious and gave it a 4.43. A decade of craft beer drinking sure can change your tastes. That is the biggest swing in a rating I’ve ever done.