Barleywine suggestions?

I was lucky to get a 4 pack of it. Can't wait 2 years tho, 6 months maybe. I'm burnin thru my stash of BCBBW pretty fast.

 

Another vote for English style barleywine, as the happiness of American is too much for me.
Bourbon County is the best I have had, but rather hard to find out there in beerland.

 

Old Guardian from Stone should be readily available most places I would think.

 

Man, the BCBBW was just ridiculous - only managed a little bit of that, and it is my absolute favorite beer ever. I just don't understand why they don't re-fill every barrel with barleywine each year - there should be as much of it as their is of the regular stout

 

I just had Anchor Old Foghorn for the first time last week and think it would be a good starting point.

Sierra Nevada Bigfoot is good as well, but it's a monster of a beer. Incredibly sweet and bitter. Old Foghorn is a little more subdued.

Whatever barleywine you decide to go with, my only advice is to pace yourself. They can really sneak up on you!

 

It's more like an American Barleywine. Way too hoppy for an English Barleywine.

 

English = very malt forward with very little to no hops present
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/style/152/
American = very hop forward
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/style/19/

 

Like F#$%ing ninjas - all of a sudden BAM and you are down...

 

Bells Third Coast for an affordable intro.

JW Lees for a great experience

 

Do you enjoy Malty Beers or Hoppy Beers. If you enjoy Hoppy Beers, I'd go with Old Ruffian and BigFoot. For Malted Beer, I'd tap Insanity/Blithering Idiot from Weyerbacher and Mendocino's BarleyWine.

 

I really like Crunkle Sam from Clown Shoes. It´s very good!

 

Another vote for Bell's Third Coast Old Ale, a great first barleywine to try. If you can find and SN Bigfoot thats already a year old or more on the shelf that is also a very good find.

 

BCBBW i would second and it'd be a homerun, if that's not something you can get how about Gnarlywine from Lagunitas?
I think that's pretty widely available.

 

Have to add that I like SN Bigfoot but I don't think I would recommend it to someone as a good intro barleywine. Its just too hoppy.

 

Anchor Old Foghorn with 18 months on it is insane. Pipeworks makes a few barley/wheatwines that are great to hold on to. Old Stock Ale, though an old ale, is impressive after a year. I have not had an older one, though!

 

Check out your local binnys. The one by me has a bunch of Old Stock from last year still, so I think there is a bit of it around...

 

Bigfoot was my first barleywine, and is very good. Stone's Old Guardian is very good, too. Just find someone to split the bottle with. It's good but I felt pretty damn sick after I finished all 22 oz. myself.

 

I feel like the only barley wine I tried that I actually liked was recently I had the old guardian hopped up. Outside of that just something about them doesn't do much for me

 

If you want to taste a barley wine, go with the suggestions in this thread that are not overly hopped or spirit barrel aged. I tend to see those as a variation on a theme. There's time for that later.

 

I've always enjoyed Dogfish Head's Olde School, though that might not be one for a first go-around. I know Founders Old Curmudgeon is technically an old ale, but it's pretty awesome as well.