Barleywine Vertical(different brewers)

Seems like it doesn't accomplish the purpose of doing a vertical, because beers within the same style can be VERY different. I haven't had Bride Maker, but those other beers are nothing alike.

Have fun though!

 

Yeah, like tdk says, this isn't a vertical but more of a themed tasting, which I quite honestly prefer over vertical tastings- themed tastings are more fun and you get to compare brewers' takes on a style. Verticals are consecutive years of a particular beer/wine (ie: 12, 13, 14 Abyss), or you could do what is called a horizontal (similar to what you are doing) where you try different beer/wine of the same style from the same year (ie: 12 Abyss, 12 Czar, 12 Dark Lord, 12 Older Viscosity).

Either way, have fun! Sorry not trying to poo-poo what you are trying to do, but I'm an educator (in real life) so this is kinda my thing.

On a related note- you should toss an actual English bwine in there for comparison, JW Lees or a Thomas Hardy or Meantime Barleywine should be easy to find at any good bottle shop!

 

It seems to me that if you wanted to do a themed tasting from different brewers but same style you would be better off doing a horizontal (all from the same year) tasting. Or a...diagonal? A multi-brewer vertical, eg parallel verticals.

 

Oak Horizontal is far from English in style, but it's a better match than the hoppier than most IPAs Old Horizontal.

My favorite style is English BW, so I am known to open several differing bottles in a sitting quite often. JW Lee's wins hands down as it truly is the most English out there, but Traquair 2020, Adnams Tally-Ho and Reserve, and Well's Old Nick are all standouts. Meantime needs a bit of time to really be a syrupy malt bomb. American breweries are still lagging on making a standout English style, but there's a handful I've enjoyed, Mash, Billionaire, Blithering Idiot and Insanity, Old Foghorn, Our Finest Regards, Artic Devil, Stormwachter's Winterfest, MoaS, and others. Bride Maker is very well done too. Mirror Mirror though, I feel missed the mark heavily, I smell some hops and get some bitterness out of that one. My favorite lately though has been Brooklyn's Hand & Seal. They absolutely nailed that beer.

 

I love how you just made up a new term.

@BigOldOaf - I recommend doing a "Bingo-Board," wherein you just randomly pick a bunch of beers, and if you happen to select the right combination of beers, you get a "Bingo!"