Barleywine Appreciation Thread (2023)

Our guy is a boss. You should see him operate. The most generous person I ever met.

 

I hope Central Waters Brewing never sends their limited-release beers to PA again. Because it would be more likely that @thebeers and you would fly to my city, our friend and I would pick you up at the airport, then we would go directly to Amherst, WI. Then to my house. For barleywine oblivion.

 

If I find more I can let you know!

 

Here's a quality beer..my first time trying. This is a 2017. Nice alcohol, slightly sweet with a little classic english barleywine fruit...very subtle flavors, nothing to strong. i could suck these down all day, a real good beer and it sure looks good

 

15 years ago...
Braced myself and went for it.
Honest brown color. Dark but light didn't struggle to show through.
It has some visible carbonation, but it only whispers on the tongue.
Lemon, soy sauce, and thin turkey gravy nose. Strange but not off.
Sweet with no alcohol burn. Pith, cedar, orange oil, caramel, forest air in a sun pocket.
I don't love it, but I do like it. Curious how much longer these can sit; amazing to have a beer that lasts this long, but BW knows the way.

 

Fair State - work life balance

Been losing that battle hard for a couple weeks now, but its sweetness is exactly right tonight.

 

ya..it's a gem

 

C'mon, you know it's bad to ask me to elaborate.

I should start by saying that my feelings about beer freshness are probably a bit different from others on the site. People here tend to think about freshness as being extremely dependent on style - IPA freshness needs to be measured in days/weeks and freshness barely matters for stouts. While style does matter to me, I have a more across-the-board approach - I generally put the same demands on freshness for IPAs and stouts. I don't need my IPAs at less than a month old and I don't want old stouts. I am certainly not against buying an old barley wine, but I see such beers as old. I want my barley wines fresh if I can have them as such.

"Damaged" obviously has a negative connotation... but isn't that a fair description of what happens to beer as it ages for years (preferences for flavors aside)? Maybe someone would prefer a different word rather than saying that a beer is ready to drink when it is released and it becomes gradually damaged over time. Saying "different" would probably be more acceptable, but I think "damaged" might possibly be better if not for the negative connotation. I never cared for beer labeling on barley wines that state the beer "will continue to improve with age." That's a case of positive connotation taken a bit far (which works better in marketing ). For me, old beer tends to taste damaged (staled by time)... but I don't mean to imply that it wouldn't taste "better" to someone who would prefer it that way. There shouldn't be one way to drink beer.

Disclaimer - Most of the aged Bigfoot that I've had has been aged in conditions that are far from ideal - on a store shelf. I'm sure this negatively impacts my experiences (but I doubt a majority of people on this site are drinking old Bigfoots fully aged in optimized environmental conditions... so that can't be the only reason why I'd have such a different reaction). I don't always have the same reactions when drinking aged Bigfoot (sometimes an aged bottle or keg really clicks with me), but as a general concept, I find fresh Bigfoot to be fruity, vibrant, luxurious, and possessing a sweet malt richness. It is cohesive and well structured (for what it is). As it ages, the vibrant malt and hop character withers aways and throws the beer out of balance. The sweetness drops, the beer feels drier, the bitterness becomes more pronounced, and the acidity level can rise. The beer gets angular and looses it's vibrancy. For me, it feels like the difference between a fresh juicy apple and a dried apple chip (but I honestly rarely eat such things so maybe my metaphor is way off ). Old isn't bad but fresh has much more life to it. I can enjoy an aged Bigfoot, but I'll probably enjoy a fresh bottle more.

All of this should show that I really can't relate to the oft-repeated concept that aged Bigfoot starts to take on a more English barley wine character. You know I'm not a big fan of the English/American dichotomy, but if people think that English barley wines are less bitter, more malt driven and more fruit forward... then for me Bigfoot gets further away from that structure as it ages (on a store shelf ) regardless of it being aged 2 or 5 years.

 

I had this one while down bad with Covid furing christmas last year and it was great

 

Shockingly, I have not uninstalled Tavour (remember, I hate money?). Just pre-ordered batch 7000. Seeing reviews that it’s not as sweet as 6000 which, if true, would put it on my mt. Rushmore for barleywines. Fingers crossed.