Barleywine Appreciation Thread (2024)

Having a very nice American Barleywine Style Ale, 13.2%. Kinda surprised me, this style from this brewery, had to try it. Very nice, dark fruit complex, whiskey/oak, vanilla, licorice.

Cheers!

 

Pryes - Drops of Time - barrel aged barleywine
Didn’t expect to find myself back there the next day, but not a situation I was going to say no to. Got a full pour this time along with dessert, and it held up much better. My sister had a taste and it completely blew her mind, so I guess I’ll (grooooan) line up a delicious tasting or some shit

 

from last night. might be the best barleywine i’ve ever had. thick, toffee / caramel soaked in bourbon up front with light chocolate and vanilla and faint dark fruits. massive beer yet so drinkable for 17%. especially considering how bourbon-forward it is. cheers!!

 

I had a fun frigid day today shoveling and sledding AND I got 2 boxes totaling 15 barleywines from @Beersnake1 ! Best day of the year so far, thanks Tim. First up is Bucket Hat Bobby from Away Days. Straight up English barleywine, no barrels or addjunks.



Canned 12/5/2022

Figs and dates are here in abundance along with spiced apple and toffee. There is something dry and prickly here as well, kind of mineral-y, a bit grassy, not quite pepper. Whatever it is, it jibes well with everything else. Very tasty.

 

Yeah, so much adultery these days reminds me of a joke a 4th grader on my bus told me recently-

St. Peter is waiting at the gates of heaven and calls the first man up.

Peter says, "You never cheated on your wife! I'm going to let you drive around heaven in a Ferrari!"

So he gets in the car and drives off through the gates.

Peter then called 2nd man up. Peter says, "Oh no, looks like you cheated on your wife TWICE! You are going to drive around heaven in an Accord!"

He gets into his car and drives through the gates.

Peter calls the third man up and says, "You cheated on your wife FIVE TIMES. You are going to be driving around in a ford pinto!"

But, when the third man drives through the gates, he sees the person in the Ferrari on the side of the rode and he's crying.

The man asks, "Why are you crying??? You got the nicest car out of all of us!!"

He replies, "I just saw my wife ride by on a bicycle."

Didn't expect that from someone so young!

 

Foreign Exchange Evolutionary State, an added junk laden English Barleywine loaded with maple (syrup) and vanilla beans from Madagascar, great aroma, sickly sweet and gets worse as it warms.

 

Me too, and i live in illinois

 

I know I'm alone on this, but in my opinion it's fallacious for a brewer to state that a barley wine made with maple syrup and Madagascar vanilla beans is "English-style"... despite the American marketing convention that they are referencing.

 

Not allowed to have the radio on when I drive, so I have a lot of time to think and I've been giving this some thought. As long as the base beer merits the description it's fair to call this an English barley wine but I would object to the phrase traditional English barley wine. The consumer is not misled in any way. They have, presumably anyway, accurately described the base beer and listed the added extras.

But I doubt you're alone

 

I appreciate the thought. I wonder if the entire "base beer" philosophy sent the beer world down the wrong road though. Why isn't the finished product as important in the hierarchy? If I was in Turkey, and I was at a restaurant selling "New York-style pizza," and I ended up with a NY-ish pie covered in chopped pistachios, I wouldn't be so inclined to think "NY-style" was actually a good fit for what I got.

 

I don't think your analogy fits because the beer in question is not simply labeled English barley wine, the addjunks are prominently labeled. No surprises like with your pistachios.

Now the question becomes, which is the greater travesty, pistachios on your pizza or in your barley wine?

 

Having Five from Future Primitive sent to me by @Beersnake1 thanks for maybe the 40th time? Blended from five years of barrel aged barleywines.



This beer is not subtle which suits my mood just fine tonight. Hard to to believe some of this is 5 years old given how potent the hop bite is, pithy citrus abounds. The barrels add bitter and oak sharp, biting bourbon. Burned caramel helps tie this beast together. Hoo-boy this mule kicks and I like it.

 

Westbound & Down '23 Louie BA English Barleywine (14 month aged Heaven Hill, Buffalo Trace and Mellow Corn barrels) courtesy of @Prager62. Love the 8 oz. cans. Wish more breweries did this.
Milk Duds and Sugar Babies candy, crème brulee, brown sugar, fig, prune, leather, charred oak, bourbon spirit. Their barrel program is upper tier and this one shows it off year in and year out. Top shelf BA barleywine.

 

Un fun fact, it’s not being brewed anymore. I think I have a few left and hope it returns next year.


Enjoy

 

Me too! Not too many hop forward barleywines being made these days.