A Barley Wine for Every Day

Neither fits... That's two strikes.

 

Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Barleywine

This beer goes out to @xcdarrel17

I've had this beer once when it came out last year. It is my favorite variety in this Goose Island series. One gets the impression that it is the unloved sibling. I wonder why. Maybe it needs the word "stout" attached to it. Maybe the beer can get more love if it was more boldly advertised as being aged in barrels that once held stout - but the thing is - this beer gets plenty of love. This is the highest rated barley wine on this website. Taking that into consideration, if this is the least popular in the series, those stouts must be regarded as super-beers.

I really enjoyed this beer last year. The nuttiness from the barrel aging hits boldly in the beginning... and then settles down soon after you get used to it. You're left with a nice richness. Opening up this one, I had the exact same experience except for one big thing - there is now a degree of sourness. It was bothersome at first, but it became an enjoyable note. Appropriate to my kidding above, the sourness actually made my mind go to porters that had intentional sourness for the sake of historical beer-smithing. Still a great beer even with the issues.

 

Of course the sourness that I got might not be something that shows up in other bottles. I just double checked my bottle - it was from Sept 2014. The beer was still really nice regardless. The bottle was from @xcdarrel17 , and he has already posted about it above. The good man decided to send me one just because he enjoyed the thread. I realized I made a mistake in my post - the last time I had this beer was back during the release in 2013.

 

It's sweet, sour, and still... at least the bottle I had was (but this was also true of other times I had it).

... when backlit.

 

American brewing history should be a source thats gets tapped into more often.

 

No need - I never took anything negative from your post. I'm glad if my circumstance was helpful in any way.

That's interesting. I've never picked up on any sourness with these beers before. Maybe it's just me.

 

@utopiajane / Maria, I just noticed that because of my usual wise-assery, my post looked like a joke regarding you not drinking your beer - I didn't intend that! I meant that American brewers should look into the past of this country more often.

 

Pretty Things Grampus

I didn't initially think of including this beer. Pretty Things has a barley wine that I included earlier. Pretty Things considers both beers to be part of their double-mash trinity (along with the intense RIS Barbapapa). They call Grampus a "hoppy golden double mash." It dawned on me that I couldn't think of any reason why Grampus couldn't be thought of as a pale barley wine. Drinking Grampus in the company of these barley wines is exactly why I'm doing this entire thing. It reveals itself to fit alongside brews like Blithering Idiot perfectly.

Grampus is very sweet. The sweetness causes one to take it in slowly. Rather than a cloying sweetness, it feels more luxurious. It's hard to justify a statement like that, but it's just the reaction I get. The beer has a little bit of red glow to it. This is the second time I'm having this beer from a bottle, and my experience was the same both times - the hoppy qualities of this beer are muted against the sweetness. The first time I had this beer, it was on tap and it was as new as you could get it. That beer was terrific! It was more balanced. If I ever have a different experience with kegged vs bottled beer, I'm different from most here in that the bottled beer usually suits me more. This was a rare case of liking a kegged beer much more. Of course, freshness has much to do with it in this case, but I think there was possibly more to it than that (such as the fickleness of perception).