Barleywine Suggestions

Definitely this. This is an English style barleywine, and one of the best. In my opinion its perfect about a year old.

 

I can identify OP. I didn't really used to care for barlewines at all, and I too was prompted to think I needed to revisit the style when I got the chance to try Bourbon County Barleywine. I think part of it is a preference to the English style, as has been mentioned already, but part of it is my palate maturing and growing over time, because I've definitely come across American style barleywines that I like, for example, Stone Old Guardian, Southern Tier Oak-Aged Backburner, and Avery Hog Heaven.

As far as the English styles go, here are a couple that I really like that you can probably find in Illinois:

• Perennial Vermillion
• Against The Grain London Ballin' - This one is most similar of all I've found to BCBW, I think mostly because it's bourbon barrel-aged. Keep in mind, it's a very different beer, but it has a lot of those amazing sweet, caramel and molasses notes that are in BCBW.

 

Bigfoot I love.

Old Guardian from Stone is pretty good(very hoppy of course)
I also really like the Griffins Bow from Sam Adams.

 

Whenever someone wants to start on a style I always recommend Sierra Nevada. Begin with Bigfoot

 

One of our new local breweres, Iron John, has just started selling his english style barleywine and it is delicious. For my tastes, I like O'Dell India Barleywine but nothing wrong with Old Stock especially their Brandy barrel aged 2011

 

bigfoot is a start if only for availability. u can even get ur hands on some aged stuff reasonably easy. to me alot of 2IPAs and american strong ale starts crossing paths w american barleywine. so for me i tend to enjoy the malt fwd english versions and old ales, also categories that bleed together to me. no better place to start than to just dive right in. no reason to search out certain ones or super rare beers or highly rated. grab whats available and drink up.

 

Second the Foghorn recomend, it ages real nice too. Actually you might get into some cellar aging barleywines, they improve nicely in my experience.

One of the very best Barleywine's I've ever tried was Baladin's Xfume Copper, it's expensive ($50 for a 750), but incredible tasting.
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/1675/34441/ - treat yourself sometime.

 

To me there is a HUGE difference between BA and regular barleywines. BCB Barleywine is my single favorite beer ever. Other BA barleywines that I love are Mother of All Storms, Sucaba, Hoppin From BA Naked Evil, and Central Waters BBBW.

 

It is incredible. Very small distribution footprint so he won't have immediate access to it.

 

I should have mentioned this one, as well. I had it a while back at the Revolution 4th year party and it was amazing. Absolutely loved the stuff and have found a few bottles on shelves recently around Chicago. Might grab one next time I see it. Thanks for the reminder!

Honestly not entirely sure what it was that I had that I disliked so much. I want to say it was Half Acre's Wild America Barleywine from a few years back. At least I know for a fact I had that one and was really disappointed by it.

 

I feel the same way- plus if you're looking for something comparable to BCBBW.. well, I don't know of any others that are very similar. Sucaba is my personal favorite BBA BW, and though I bet you'd enjoy it, it is pretty different from BCBBW with its chocolatey notes.

Some of my favorite non-BBA barleywines/heavies/strongs with fairly easy accessibility are-
Sierra Nevada Bigfoot
Stone Old Guardian, Oak-smoked OG, Arrogant Bastard, Oaked Bastard, and Double Bastard (2014 OG might still be on the shelves around you, use their BeerFinder!)
Bell's Third Coast Old Ale
Founders Curmudgeon (Old Ale brewed with molasses and oak-aged. We just got ours in this past week) and Dirty Bastard
Great Divide Old Ruffian
Three Floyds Behemoth
North Coast Old Stock
Lagunitas Undercover Shutdown and Hairy Eyeball


Favorite BBA, which unfortunately besides Boulevard are all pretty difficult to acquite-
Firestone Walker Sucaba and DDBA (Sucaba might still be available if you're lucky)
Sierra Nevada BBA Bigfoot
Founders Backwoods Bastard
Boulevard Rye-On-Rye

Enjoy! I'll be having my first Curmudgeon of the year tonight

 

sooo.. since you have already revisited the style that you hated...... i guess the only option is to keep with that style (barrel aged barleywines?) Which barelywine did you "hate" previously? Was it an american barleywine that was very hoppy? Was it way to young?

 

Fairly sure the ones that didn't do it for me were American barleywines. I feel that at least now my palate has changed a considerable amount and I'll be more receptive to the style.

 

There is such a difference between a Barrel Aged beer and its counterpoint, and the barrel is so dominant, that I tend to mentally group them as their own category. IOW- 'Barrel Aged Beer', subcategory 'Stout', or subcategory 'Barleywine', etc. It seems everyone else does it the other way, where Barrel Aging is a subcategory of whatever style they are talking about. It's hard to pin down recs in situations like this, because what struck a chord might not be the base beer after all, even though that is what is asked for.

Anyway- most of the top ones have been named already- Sucaba, DDBA, Insanity, Central Waters- all great stuff.

 

I prefer Mother of All Storms and Arctic Devil over BCBBW. Not sure if this helps.

 

This

and this.

Don't get me wrong, I think that BA barleywines are great beers, but I wonder if one needs to try a range of standard barleywines first. Barrel aging is meant to enhance a beer's character, but there needs to be an appreciation or, at the least, an understanding of the base beer underneath.

Don't think I've seen JW Lees Barleywine mentioned yet, but it's a fine English barleywine. And the barrel aged variants are really nice.

 

Bigfoot definitely is a great starter! I got two 4 packs recently drank one and will be saving the others for a year or so from now!

 

Begin & end with Big Foot!

 

I've had 4 barleywines. 3 American (Bigfoot, OldeSchool, and Flying Mouflin) and 1 English (Blithering Idiot). Hated them all.

Yet I've tried 7 Old Ales and I enjoyed 6 of those out of the 7 and I think they are supposed to be somewhat similar to Barleywines. I really don't know.

 

King Henry