Barleywine Appreciation Thread (2024)

Barrel Aged Nemesis and corn meal mush - dinner of champions

 

I think I'll follow the lead of @Beersnake with a straight up wheatwine courtesy of... @Beersnake Thanks Tim! Slow and Steady from Cabin Brewing Company out of Calgary.



Pretty pour, love the sticky lace atop a murky golden amber color. Wheatwine is a style that is more miss than hit for me but this one works. The alcohol is well hidden and the sweetness, while plentiful, has enough layering and nuance to keep things interesting. Golden raisins, brown sugar, honey, lightly charred caramel, and a hint of something earthy/nutty that I can't describe better. Thanks Tim, I'm diggin' this one!

 

One of my absolute most favoritest barleywines from the west coast

this puts §ucaba to shame . try to argue with a man who has drank the past 15 vintages in an amount equal to 5x his bodyweight......I'll wait


Bass Clef(15.45%) from the now Defunct HiDef...now known as AudioGraph Brewing

3 days without an imperial stout now.....I'm boycotting that shit.

 

2019 East End Brewing - Gratitude

I picked this up at the brewery a couple years ago along with a couple other vintages. Appearently I should have written down the year because Blue Jay isnt listed on East End's vintage label guide. But the back label references the 15th year in business which should be 2019.

 

It’s a 2018 bottle.

 

You have some bottles yourself, or is there a good source of info somewhere online?

The East End guide for 2018 says the 750ml paperwrap bottles that year were Bluebird (not Blue Jay) and also lists a release of 250 bottles (my label lists 280 bottles). Just typos on their end?
https://www.eastendbrewing.com/gratitude

Based on pictures on Untappd, people have checked in the Blue Jay under both 2018 and 2019. But its confusing because the 22oz bottles are the majority of the pictures and those definitely have the Bluebird and Indigo Bunting respectively. Have they used the same color wax for all bottle formats in a given year?

***Edit I should have noted in my original post that the beer was excellent- nice complex malt flavors but not too sweet - good balance from the lingering hops, and no negative oxidation at all

 

Late last night I drank a bottle of Gales of November from Luce Line in Plymouth, MN. It's a good beer.
My review:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/60076/683503/

 

snagged the last 4pk on the shelf at P-town binny’s yesterday. as a very big fan of ryeway and having never tried VSOR, i was excited to try this and it did not disappoint! huge barrel presence. thick mouthfeel. rich caramel and toffee with light vanilla, chocolate and dark fruits. an amazing sipper. cheers!!

 

Big thanks to @Beersnake for this amazing beer, one of the best I've had in recent memory. Edge of Time batch 2 from Cellarmaker. Much appreciated Tim!



Enjoyed at cellar temp. This is reminiscent of my favorites from Jackie O's (high praise) but with less overt sugariness. Lots of familiar, drippily sweet descriptors, brown sugar, caramel, and toffee for sure but there is a kind of lightly charred edge to them all that is magnificent. I also get figs, molasses, roasted sugary nuts, and sooo much decadently smooth booze. Maybe some cocoa as well. The body is full and lightly sticky. This is damn near perfect to me. What a treat, thanks again Tim!

 

Dang that sounds good!

 

rev bows to few even it’s comes to their BA BW game.

 

I shouldn't have said "It’s a 2018 bottle." I should have said I have a hunch that it's 2018 ... and yeah, I was guessing that their guide isn't totally accurate.

Bear with me (this is the kind of mystery I enjoy). The years are color-coded in rainbow order. Blue (2018) can be confused with indigo (2019), but here's the 2019 release with the indigo bunting bird (which can also be seen in the group shot below)... which isn't your bottle.

One article about the 2018 release stated that these were the beers:

Note the "brand new artwork" bit. This made me wonder if the paper wrapped bottle for that year had a different "blue" bird than the regular bottle... and I'm guessing that was the case. The photos for the "Gratitude (2018)" entry on Untappd supports this theory. The group shot below also possibly suggests that this might be the case:



This shot shows the earlier 2005-2009 lineup:


I'm thinking that the folks who made the "definitive guide" weren't exactly being too careful when they state that both bottles of 2018 were a blue bird. How many people in the brewing industry would look at your bottle and say "That's a blue jay not a bluebird"? Maybe even using two words (blue bird) was intended to be generic. And I'm assuming the number of bottles released changed.

So - I've got no real evidence to prove this theory, but I don't know what else would make more sense. The Untappd entry is what made me feel confident enough - and I can't believe I'm actually saying that about photos in an Untappd entry! Dear God, what's next?

 

Reflections of Realty, an English Barleywine brewed by Forest & Main Brewing Co. (Ambler, PA) with Maris Otter and Chrystal malts, English and American hops, English yeast, and aged for 11 months in Heaven Hill barrels. Very well done!

 

Haven’t had one of these in a long time—not as chewy or sweet as some other BWs, maybe a little more fruity, even floral. Quite good and has aged well. Cheers!