Goose Island Beer Co. - Bourbon County Brand Barleywine Ale

Goose Island's expansion has been good to us here in California. Beers that were nearly impossible to come across before (The Four Sisters series and the Bourbon County Brand series, specifically) showed up in numbers on our shelves late last year. Bourbon County Brand Stout and its ever changing offspring are in pretty high demand in places that see regular distribution of it, so factor in that California hadn't seen distribution of the stuff for three years and you pretty much have the beer world equivalent of throwing a bunch of One Direction tickets into a mob of teenage girls. Fittingly, these beers hit shelves on Black Friday, so people were already in the mood to taze anything standing in the way of what they wanted to buy. This year brought three new beers in the series (Proprietor's, Backyard Rye and Bourbon County Barleywine), so that didn't really help. Somehow, it's a few months since the fracas and I've emerged un-shanked and with a few bottles of the three versions that were semi-attainable in San Diego, Bourbon County Brand Stout, Coffee and Barleywine. Time to check out the barleywine. At #28, Bourbon County Brand Barleywine.

Bourbon County Brand Barleywine pours a rich chestnut color that pretty much becomes black once it all settles into the glass. The head is a moderate 1/2 finger khaki colored cap and leaves pretty minimal lace. The smell is where things pick up, with a nice barrel character coming through immediately. There's a bit of a mustiness in here with some nice bourbon notes, toffee, caramel, dark chocolate covered cherries, light ash, some coconut and a touch of brown sugar. Not bad, Goose Island. Not bad at all.

The first thing I noticed when I took a sip of this beer was how silky smooth it was. The mouthfeel is just incredible. Flavors of toffee, vanilla and milk chocolate slide over the palate first. The middle brings a pretty hearty oak backbone with some burnt raisin skins and a bit of smooth caramel. Things dry out a touch on the finish, and you get that slight prickle of bourbony heat on your tongue, along with some bittersweet cocoa notes. I loved this beer, but I think the hype train took it a little deeper in the Top 250 than it probably deserves to be. Is it a Top 200 beer? Definitely. Is it a Top 30 beer? Ehhhhh. It just doesn't have that harmony in the flavors that top notch barleywines like Sucaba and Mother of All Storms have. It does, however, show pretty nice aging potential, so I'll lay another one down for a while and see where it's at later.

Final Grade: A

Top 250 Beers Tasted: 129

Barleywine Tasting!

Barleywines have never really been my favorite style. I'll enjoy one I've heard good things about from time to time, but it's rare that I find myself in the mood for a barleywine. So when I peeked into my collection a few weeks back and noticed that I had somehow accumulated a crapload of barleywines throughout the years, there was only one thing to be done- a giant barleywine tasting. Luckily I have some adventurous friends who were happy to hang out and help me down my collection. On Friday, we finally got together and tried most of them. Here's what we tasted and how I would rank them.


10. Hair of the Dog Brewing Company - Doggie Claws (2010)

 

Doggie Claws pours a hazy burnt orange color with a thin white head. I picked up notes of candied tangerine, orange, cedar, and some faint spearmint on the nose. Definitely different, but not at all bad.

The taste was definitely way sweeter than I'm used to in barleywines. I got big notes of dates and brown sugar with just a hint of earthy hops. I've been holding onto this beer for a few years and I was really hoping my patience would pay off. The sweetness really got to me though and the beer felt a tad under carbonated, making it syrupy.  I'm still a big Hair of the Dog fan, but this is probably the worst I've had from them.

Final Grade: C

9. Uinta Brewing Company - Cockeyed Cooper

 

Cockeyed Cooper pours a deep chestnut color with a thin tan head. Being bourbon barrel aged, I was expecting a lot of bourbony goodness on the nose, but I was met instead by a huge malty aroma with notes of plum skin, orange oil and some overripe mango.

The taste was pretty dry for a barleywine with a lot of sticky, earthy hops. I picked up a good amount of grapefruit pith, toasted oak and some booze. With the exception of the toasted oak, I really didn't get any bourbon barrel notes at all, which was a bit of a letdown. I liked the beer, but I was hoping for a bit more from the barrel.

Final Grade: C+

8. Marin Brewing Company - Old Dipsea Barleywine Style Ale

 

Old Dipsea pours a deep, dark brown color with a thin tan head. I tried for a while, but it was hard to coax much of a smell out of this one. Even after it warmed up, it was faint, at best. I got some faint plum and tootsie roll from this, but not much else.

This wasn't a bad beer at all, but it was definitely pretty straightforward. I got a ton of malt throughout, with notes of wheat bread and some dark fruit coming through. This beer was noticeably light on the hops, but it wasn't bad.

Final Grade: C+

7. Stone Brewing Company - Old Guardian (2012)

 

Old Guardian pours a hazy, burnt orange color with a thin white head. The nose carried a ton of citrus, with big notes of candied apricot and tangerine rind alongside a lot of malt and some wood.

Similar to Old Dipsea, I thought that Old Guardian was a pretty straightforward barleywine. But instead of being malt forward, this one focuses mainly on the hops. A sticky citrus hop presence carries through the beer. Rich malt and booze are present as well with a dry finish that brings a bit of an aspirin flavor.

Final Grade: B-

6. Alaskan Brewing Company - Alaskan Barley Wine (2009)

 

Alaskan Barley Wine pours a ruddy brown color with a thin tan head. This beer has been aged a few years, and the smell has definitely moved towards the malty end of the spectrum. The smell is full of rich malt, grain, barley, almond meal and some toast.

The taste was full of malt, with some big notes of Grape Nuts, fig and raisin skins. The finish brought a bit of sweetness with a hint of honey. This was my first experience with this beer and I came away pretty pleased with the experience. It wasn't a mindblowing barleywine, but it was tasty, nonetheless.

Final Grade: B

5. Hangar 24 Brewery - Barrel Roll No. 4- Hammerhead

 

Hammerhead pours a hazy dark brown color with a thin, off-white head. The smell had notes of burnt brown sugar, toffee, some faint sticky citrus hops and a touch of barrel.

The taste was pretty aggressive, with notes of burnt raisin skins, bourbon, burnt wood, vanilla and some oak. Clocking in at nearly 14% ABV, this is a beast of a beer, but it didn't really taste like it. It wasn't nearly as good as Hangar 24's Pugachev's Cobra, but this was definitely a solid barleywine.

Final Grade: B

4. Sierra Nevada Brewing Company - Bigfoot Barleywine Style Ale (2012)

 

Bigfoot pours a deep copper color with a nice and fluffy cream colored head. On the nose, I got a lot of toffee, burnt caramel, brown sugar, cake batter and some faint grape skins.

The taste is full of sticky and earthy hops tamed by an enormous malty backbone. I also picked up some grapefruit pit, pine resin and some caramel before a bitter finish that was full of more pine resin. This beer was a year old and it mellowed terrifically. I can only imagine what this would taste like with a few more years under it. I'll have to find out at some point.

Final Grade: A-

3. Dogfish Head Craft Brewery - Olde School Barleywine (2006)

 

Olde School Barleywine pours a super cloudy orange-ish brown color with almost no head whatsoever. I picked up notes of buttery toffee, hazelnut, some faint citrus rind and smooth caramel. The smells all melded together really nicely.

After six years of aging, this 15% monster tastes absolutely fantastic. The taste is smooth and malty throughout with some notes of dark fruit and just a hint of earthy hops. A big thanks goes out to my buddy, Luke, who found this for a me a few months back. This was really a treat to try.

Final Grade: A

2. Pelican Pub & Brewery - Mother of all Storms (2011)

 

Mother of all Storms pours a deep brown color with a slight ruby tinge to it. On the nose I got a lot of wood and bourbon as well as some caramel, toffee and dark fruit.

The taste is full of toffee, raisin and bourbon. I also got some brown sugar, faint oak barrel and some unsweetened baking chocolate. This beer has a fantastic reputation and it's very well deserved. It was definitely one of the best we tried. A huge thanks to Beau for sending me this bottle last year.

Final Grade: A+

1. Firestone Walker Brewing Company- Sucaba (2012)

 

Sucaba pours a dark brown color with a very thin tan head. The nose brought notes of toasted toffee, caramel, brown sugar, bourbon and toasted marshmallow.

The taste opens with a lot of bourbon and some sticky malt notes. Some notes of maple and oak barrel follow before a finish that's sweet and warming. I don't know exactly what goes on in Firestone Walker's barrels, but everything they throw in there seems to turn into gold. Sucaba is no exception. It's a fantastic beer and, I would say, the best of the tasting.

Final Grade: A+

Top 250 Beers Tasted: 110

Pelican Pub and Brewery - Mother of All Storms

I used to not be a fan of barleywines. So much so, in fact, that for a while I considered them my least favorite style (not counting Pizza Beer). But I realized that there were just too many barleywines out there to discount the entire style. And so, gradually, I began to give more of them a try and I started to appreciate them a bit more. I didn't think they were good, but the style was becoming tolerable to me. Then I tried Firestone's Abacus (now called Sucaba) and my mind was absolutely blown. Not only had I found a drinkable barleywine, I had fallen in love. I looked for more and more barelywines to try and found one lurking pretty high in the ranks of the Top 100 that I decided I had to have. But the brewery that made it was a smaller brewery in Oregon called Pelican Pub and Brewery and the beer wasn't really being distributed at all. This kind of problem seems to happen to me a lot.

Fast forward a few months to the end of last year when my friend, Beau, moved to Portland. We talked about getting a trade together and I mentioned that a beer called Mother of All Storms was going to be released in November and I had heard great things about it. Great friend that he is, he managed to go to the brewery on the day of release and score me a bottle. While he was at the brewery, he tried a few different years of Mother of All Storms and while he confirmed that the beer was as amazing as I had heard, he recommended I cellar it for a bit, because the beer seemed way better with a little age under it. So with a ton of hesitance, I set the bottle aside and tried to forget that I had it. Since it's now been over a year, I finally decided that some friends and I would open it alongside a bunch of other barleywines I've been saving for a giant barleywine tasting in a few weeks. But a part of me always wondered what this beer would taste like fresh.

A few days ago, I got an email from a guy at a local bottleshop. The email read "Pelican Pub and Brewery Mother of All Storms- Arrived." I stared at my phone in disbelief for a while, reading and rereading the words. There was no way. As soon as I got out of work, I hurried over there and, sure enough, found a 2012 bottle of Mother of All Storms. My prayers had been answered. At number 49 on the Top 100 List, here's Mother of All Storms.

Mother of All Storms pours a deep reddish brown color with a thin sand colored head. The beer just looks thick in the glass, almost like a dark colored bourbon. The smell opens with a rich aroma of bourbon that's strong without being overpowering. Behind the bourbon, I was able to pick out lots of toffee, raisin, brown sugar, toasted coconut, oak and some dark fruit. This beer is bourbon barrel-aged, so I was a little worried that the bourbon smell might be a little too strong right out of the gate, but it seemed just right.

The taste opens with some burnt raisin skins and a good dose of bourbon. Soon after comes rich notes of vanilla, toffee, butterscotch and toasted oak. The beer leaves a dry and warming sensation after every sip. At 13.5%, this is a huge beer, but it's not harsh at all, even this fresh. I don't know if I liked this better than Abacus, but it's very close and that's saying a lot. I can't wait to try this beer with some age on it as part of the barleywine tasting and I will report back as soon as that happens.

Final Grade: A

Top 100 Beers Tasted: 46