Barleywine style tasting March 4th

Looks like I've caught some rendition of the flu, cold, feeling-blah, etc. If my system clears up, I'm still in to share notes.

 

Bumping the thread and mentioning that I've collected more barleywines than I can drink. Sebago BBA Barleywine, Rising Tide Hesperus, Lawsons/Otter Creek Double or Nothing maple Barleywine, Sierra Nevada 2015-2017 Bigfoot, Weyerbacher Blithering Idiot, and some others I can't recall.

 

Not one of my favorite styles, but I'm in. I've got a bottle of Insanity that's been sitting in the cellar for a good while. Why not?

 

That's a good one.

Cheers!

 

Good idea!
I think I have like 6-8 choices, but I'm leaning toward Thirsty Dog Wulver and Smuttynose Really Old Brown Dog. It would be my first time trying Wulver. The Really Old Brown Dog has 25 months on it.
Cheers to Saturday!!

 

I think that would make a hell of a bachelor party to break out some barleywines.

 

Due to 5 pm central time being midnight here in Germany, my review may come Sunday instead. I am old, and married, and likely to be in bed before midnight on a Saturday. Plus, it makes for a great excuse for telling the wife why I'm waking up on a Sunday and have a BW for breakfast.

 

Just wanted to pass on this bit of coolness said by my favorite local brewer who also is a great human being.

He has an absolutely mind blowing barley wine on tap right now that is 15.9% ABV, but tastes about 8%, perfect balance of flavors. And he has made his other recipe numerous times which we all look forward to. And he commented yesterday, as near as I can remember to quote him, that he can't understand why barley wine isn't the most popular style. He said folks flock for IPA but barley wine sits for a while before it sells out.

And as I was drinking and enjoying this incredible barley wine I couldn't help but agree with him. Why isn't barley wine the most popular style?

 

ABV too high, some too hoppy.

Cheers!

 

1) no such thing
2) only the far inferior American styles

English Barleywines are easily my favorite style to sit with and sip on over the course of an evening. As DDB is fond of saying, "barleywine is life."

 

Also a big fan of ABWSA and EBWSA.

Cheers!

 

Get it. It is an English style. I am a big fan of that style, while I need my Americans to get a few years on them first.

Back to Horn Dog. For the price, it is hard to beat. It is good fresh, and I just had a 2012 earlier this week that was awesome. The abv disappeared behind a slightly carbonated, fresh, dark stone fruit taste that was captivating. Personally, I think Horn Dog with a year on it is peak.

 

I just picked up a four pack of Cereal Killer. I also found out one of my brother's old friends is now an aspiring beer advocate. I may be hosting a little tasting tomorrow night if he's available, which would mean no Barleywine tasting for me (we'd be doing a one year vertical with Founder's Imperial Stout, and he'd be bringing a Boulevard beer).

 

I drank a Hog Heaven today from 2015. The dry hopping is still in your face. I'm going to exclude it from this beer tasting.

Gonna have fresh Bigfoot and JW Lees Harvest Ale, maybe a Fullers Vintage to yack aboot tomorrow.

 

@2beerdogs put me on that 2 years ago.

Could not agree more.

 

Thanks for the tip.

That's a good question. I don't know if it's answerable in any satisfying way. It's not often that I am engaged in face to face conversation with other beer geeks. I'll never forget one of the few times I did this with a group of people that I had just met. They were very serious about tracking down beers (the usual suspects) and trying them. What stood out to me was some folks' outright dismissal of drinkable German lagers as if it was mandatory, and almost everybody confessing to disliking barley wines. This clearly wasn't that time I drank in your company.

 

Looking forward to this tonight. Will we be using this thread for reviews/notes?

Cheers!

 

This thread inspired me to pick up a sixer of SN Bigfoot, bottled on 12/08/16. Having a few months on it now mellowed out the hoppiness a bit and I do like it better aged than fresh it would seem and lots of flavors going on, really dig it and need to explore this style a little more. I am going to try to save a bottle or two for aging.

 

Look forward to a 2011 Monster from Brooklyn Brewing, maybe a Pretty Things Finest Regard from 2014 tonight. Notes will be posted.
Cheers