A Barley Wine for Every Day

Yeah - I tend to risk buying their stuff because it has paid off... with only a few exceptions, I like their beer very much. I also find that their beers must hold up to age pretty well because I've never had a problem with this and I know that their stuff is not flying off the shelves here. You are right, I've really enjoyed Beast Bitter.

 

I had that one too and remember definitely liking it. If I remember correctly, I thought the malt and hop character was big... and in this "double" beer they seemed huge. I honestly think it was too big a beer for the moment that I opened it. I might have liked the "double" more on a different day. When I post about a beer here and I claim that I wasn't into it but I don't go into detail... it might just be a case of the wrong beer at the wrong time.

 

Barrier 10,000 Foot Beard

Barrier's Archibald really impressed me earlier in this thread. I was very happy to see bottles of this "imperial Scotch ale" on the shelves recently. It feels like it's been IPA after IPA from them.

This beer is fantastic. The malt is dense and rich. Unlike most sweet American Scotch ales, this one is quite hoppy... bordering on aggressive. There's clearly some smoked malts in this, but they aren't in the forefront. I've always wondered if there's a kernel of truth in the American peated Scotch ales or if it's purely a form of American burlesque. Either way, this beer really feels like a special one. It's bold, but it really works.

 

Stone Arrogant Bastard Ale

If I remember correctly, some people were mentioning that I wasn't featuring Stone's Old Guardian in this thread. I will correct that with the next post, but for now, the Stone theme starts with Arrogant Bastard, an "American Strong Ale."

This beer is stunning to look at. It's like a high gloss chestnut. It's a delicious and well crafted beer. The characteristic American hops burst forth with bitterness and threaten to mask the character of the malt, but it manages to be cohesive. It's very drinkable for its type. At the lighter end of the strong ale spectrum in terms of malt, alcohol, and body. It's 7.2 ABV is actually the same as the latest batch of Tally-Ho.

 

Stone Old Guardian Pekko Hop edition

Boy was I surprised by this one. It's huge. It's like the massive bigger brother of Arrogant Bastard. The malt is big, the hops are big, the flavors are big. While the hopping makes it distinctly American, I was very surprised by the level of sweetness in this beer. It's like a collision of fruit with vanilla and caramel.

This was a case of me being very impressed with a beer, but still finding it very difficult to drink an entire bomber in an evening. The packaging isn't doing this beer any favors. After getting some very unsatisfying strong ales from Stone in the not too distant past, this beer has rekindled my interest in drinking their product. Even though I can be very critical of beers that wear out their welcome, this one is impressive.

 

I never finished posting about the strong ales I had back in January... I just had trouble finding the time to do it. Aiming to correct that, here's one more beer before I do a post of the blind tastings I did last month. Towards the end of January, I made a post in New Beer Sunday about a Greene King beer called Old 5X. The post made me realize that I should revisit their beer Old Crafty Hen... so I did.



Greene King Old Crafty Hen

Old Crafty Hen is made by blending the popular Old Speckled Hen with a beer called Old 5X.

5X is a 12% beer that Greene King traditionally brews for blending. It is a true "stock ale." 5X is aged in three 100-barrel unlined oak maturation vats for at least two years in a deep tunnel at the brewery. The lids of the vats are covered in marl (a sandy gravel or soil). The weight of the marl stops the lids from opening due to secondary fermentation (or to deter bacteria depending on what you read). The supposedly sherry-like aged beer is then blended with younger ales. I'd sure like to try some undiluted 5X. Here's a pic of a vat:



Old Crafty Hen is listed here as an English Strong Ale. The label calls it a "Vintage Ale." Greene King also uses 5X to blend with BPA (Burton Pale Ale) to create the beer they call Strong Suffolk Vintage or Olde Suffolk. That beer is listed here as an "old ale."

I never cared for Old Speckled Hen. I've enjoyed Olde Suffolk and found it to be oaky. I've had Old Crafty Hen before, but I didn't think much of it at the time.

This particular bottle was suffering from oxidation. The color is very dark amber with a bit of red. It's sweet and raisiny. There's some alcohol burn. The body is thin and light. This beer is syrupy in taste but not texture. I do feel like there's some depth here that I overlooked in the past. It wears the Greene King colors. ABV is 6.5%

 

As mentioned, here's a summary of the blind tastings that I did last month. Most of these beers were featured in this thread along the way.



The first was a collection of three strong ales from Great Divide:
- Old Ruffian, their (American) barley wine
- Claymore, their Scotch ale
- Hibernation, their "old ale"

Although I conducted this one as a blind tasting, there was really no need to go that far with it. The three beers are so distinctive from one another. I love that Great Divide featured all three of these beers in their lineup, but all things come to an end... and I found out that Old Ruffian has been retired. It's a pity. It's been reported that Old Ruffian's tank space is now being used for an IPA hop series. I have no words.

Old Ruffian is grainy, hoppy, and bitter. Hibernation is roasty, woody, slightly fruity/raisiny, and coffee-ish. Claymore is sweet, smoky, and in this case sour.

Hibernation really shows you how context can highlight one attribute over another. When I put it in barley wine tastings, the roasty and coffee qualities really come forward. When I put it in stout tastings, the coffee moves to the background and the fruity and woody qualities come forward. Contrast is a powerful thing.

Anyhow, I’m not really ranking these three because there’s less of a point in doing so, but I’ll just say that if Hibernation got the axe instead of Old Ruffian I’d be miserable.





In this group, Skull Splitter was thrown in as a wild card.

Here’s how I ranked these beers according to nothing more than my preference on that particular day. It goes without saying that I might rank them differently on another day or could get a different impression if I had any of these on their own.

6 - Skull Splitter
5 - Ballantine Burton Ale
4 - Old Foghorn
3 - Anti-Freeze
2 - Back Burner
1 - Immort Ale

The yeast profile in Skull Splitter made it clear that it was from the UK. Unfortunately, the medicinal quality made it unenjoyable. I've enjoyed that beer much more on its own in the past. Ballantine was hoppy, syrupy, fruity, and nutty. Old Foghorn was rich but overly sweet. Anti-Freeze was thin, dry and very unusual. Back Burner was rich, very hoppy, and strong. Immort Ale was smoky, hot, and hoppy.





This next group had two wild cards: Bigfoot and Central Waters Scotch Ale. It also had the two beers that I enjoyed the most from the last group.

7 - Central Waters Scotch Ale
6 - Old Stock Ale
5 - Back Burner
4 - Immort Ale
3 - Bernese
2 - Bigfoot
1 - Hibernation

I’ve really enjoyed Central Waters Scotch Ale when I’ve had it on its own, but with it being the only bourbon barrel aged beer here, it suffered in its juxtaposition (like Skull Splitter). It was heavy, cloying, woody, and vanilla-ish. Old Stock Ale was fine but lacking compared to the high bar from the group. Back Burner and Immort Ale were back-to-back just like in the previous group. Bernese was rich, hot, and fruity (a surprising stand-out). Bigfoot’s placement was a shock for me. More on that later. Hibernation was as lovely as always.

I was so impressed by Bigfoot in this tasting. It was of course very hoppy, but the malty depth was fantastic. I’ve always had a lot of respect for this beer, but I’ve also mentioned countless times on these forums that I never really cared for it… and that it felt like an outlier as a barley wine (even an “American” one). I gotta say, this one tasting has made me a convert… and I don’t even like to let myself get too swayed by a single blind tasting. I threw it in as a wild card just to test my opinions. My eyes have been opened, and I’ve already got 4 different years of it in storage in the basement.






For my last group, I once again chose the two favorites from the prior group… and in this case added one more beer - Bell’s Third Coast Old Ale. Third Coast was a beer that I really wanted in the previous tasting but I couldn’t locate any.

Hibernation was the lightest and sweetest of the bunch. As usual, it was coffee-ish, fruity, and roasty. Bigfoot was the hoppiest… aggressively so. Hops were clearly American, and dialed too far up. It had a long, bitter finish. There was richness and complexity. Third Coast was the heaviest. It was a little oxidized. Malt complexity was fantastic.

How would I rank them? No idea. It was such a toss up. If absolutely forced to pick a favorite I might lean towards Third Coast. (or maybe not )

Cheers.

 

It really feels like an oddball to me too but I'm not exactly sure why. Whenever I have it, I think it's a bit weird! It just doesn't click with me. I'm also hanging on to my last two for aging.

 

Me too.

When I think of 6 pack beers that I would hate to see retired, Third Coast and Hibernation are pretty high on my list. There's something about strong ales like those that feels precious... and endangered. I get worried that Third Coast Old Ale will stop showing up over here. I really want to have some fresh bottles, but I never have. I've only ever had old bottles or fresh stuff on tap (which was incredible). When I finally found another 6 pack for the tasting above, it was a year old, so I deliberatly picked a one year old Bigfoot to use also (Hibernation was a new one).