Barleywine: The Great Misunderstood

What You Need To Know:
Barleywine is not made from grapes nor is it fortified ale or a light brandy.

It is a Strong beer and must be enjoyed in Moderation…unless you really like jail.

You’ve heard/read about Barleywine. I mean, unless you’ve been living on the International Space Station for the past decade and maybe even if you have. I’ve been drinking them and selling them and preaching the Gospel of Barleywine for well over 20 years, now. It is the style of beer that I enjoy most, except when I don’t and those periods in which I prefer an IPA or winter seasonal ales tend to come at wider intervals and be of shorter duration as I (badly) age.

It is also easily the most misunderstood major style of beer, exceeded only by Steinbiers and Kvieks and Grisettes and oddities like those, of largely foreign origins.

In my now thirty years in the beverage trade, here are a few of the explanations I’ve heard, first-hand of what “barleywine” means:

“It’s beer that fermented with wine yeast.”

“It’s beer that’s partially blended with wine.”

“It’s a beer but not a beer because the alcohol level makes it a liquor.”

“It’s another term for a weaker brandy.”

“It’s a form of barrel-aged Stout, mixed with grain alcohol.”

“It’s a beer made from a base of alcohol, instead of water.”

“It’s made from grapes and then distilled, like Grappa, and then is aged with barley and hops.”

These are just a few. They’re all bullshit, BTW, not a word of truth among ’em. My favorite was the dork in the Harbor Pub, on Bainbridge Island, Washington, who told his table of The Gullible that Barleywine “is naturally occurring, when barley is milled and its liquids run off and it ferments by itself.” Oy-fuggen-vey. (You have to be the spawn of a good mystery writer who married a con-man to come up with that. Or have some really dumb friends.) I didn’t intervene (just barely) but an involuntary chuckle escaped my lips and the dork shot me a dirty look.

Sadly, this kind of absurd information is practically a tradition in the beverage world and is really no more outlandish or shocking than the ongoing, deathless idea that White Zinfandel is made from white grapes (it isn’t) or that wine headaches are caused by sulfites. (they’re USUALLY not)

In fact, the explanation is a lot more simple: Barleywine is called that because it’s one of the upper alcohol ranges of Strong Ales and frequently sports an ABV more commonly found in a wine. Its full spectrum is really from 8-9% to well over 13%. (about the average for most normal red and white wines) There are some wines, most notably Italian Moscato, that finish at roughly 5% to 7% and, of course, there are plenty that run well above 13%, such as big California Zinfandels, Ports, Sherrys, Soleras, and almost all fortified wines.

They were popularized in Great Britain and became a codified style there and I like to imagine, with zero proof, that the term evolved out of some chance remark, when some beer newbie or a timid wife or child got hold of some dockworker’s Barleywine, took a sip, and said, “Pshew! That’s more like wine!” To which the stevedore replied, with a twinkle in his eye, “Aye, lad, it’s a wine…made from barley, a sort of Barley-Wine!”

That’s all bullshit, of course. The real origin is likely a lot more prosaic and the general style has been around since ancient Greece. But, it was probably a Brit brewer who saw his big, malty, overdriven ale wind up around 14% ABV and said, “Jaysus, that’s like a wine made o’ barley!” It was first used on a bottle by Bass & Company Brewers in 1903.

The thumbnail sketch, in fact, the definition at CraftBeer.com says, “Barleywine beer is a strong ale that leans heavily on malt characteristics for flavor. … As barleywine beers advance in age, they develop oxidative characteristics, including honey and toffee flavors as well as aromas, darker colors, lessened bitterness and more.” They are among the most age-worthy beers and I’ve tasted some that were brewed in the late 60s and early 70s which were as vibrant as if they were made last month.

BUT – and this is HUGE – today, in the age of the universal mania for IPA and hoppy beers in general, many, maybe most, American Barleywines are made with an assertive or even aggressive hops profile, a distinct break from its Brit origins, which was All About That Base Malt. One English brewer who messaged me a few years back, said that, if you make Barleywine correctly, it will be, “Like a boozy Scotch ale on steroids” and that’s a handy nutshell.

For almost fifteen years, now, brewers, wineries, and lately distilleries have been sending me samples and I have made no secret that I adore Barleywines and will jump on samples of those a LOT faster than yet another fuggen Pinot Noir or summer IPA. So, I’ve tasted maybe forty to fifty in the past three years.

BUYER BEWARE: and I mean, really, seriously BEWARE. Barleywine is intense and great ones are STRONG and they are NOT – NOTNOTNOT – ales that you have two or three (or five) of in an evening. They are generally not for people new to craft beer and even some people who have a ton of experience in beer don’t like ’em. My own wife, whose adventurous palate sometimes rivals mine, tastes them as though she is being asked to drink snake venom and usually makes faces. I drink a really fine Barleywine with a big ol’ ‘possum grin on my face and make throaty, diaphragm-y noises usually only heard during sex.

YOU TRY THESE AT YOUR OWN RISK and that is not hyperbole. Over-indulging in Barleywine is the stuff of police incident reports, in which the officer spends extra time trying to think of ways to say “naked, with a feather duster up his ass” and “tried to screw a gas pump”, that’s appropriate for a report. They can seriously Knock You On Your Ass, and many doubters have scars to prove it.

But, if you’re ready, here are a few of the best that I’ve received, from 2019 on to here on October 2nd, 2023…

Boundary Bay Barrel-Aged “Old Bounder”: I named this one first because it is, to me, what “Barleywine” means – or SHOULD. “Boozy” is dead-on, due to its hefty ABV and the whiskey barrels in which it’s been aged. The ones from maybe ten years ago are notably less hoppy than the current editions but lost exactly nothing in the hops evolution. In fact, even for a devout Malt Monster like me, the edge of piney hops bitterness enhances the whole, giving what is already a mammoth ale style added “oomph”, while nicely framing a prodigious spine of chewy, dripping caramels and chocolate and wood notes and molasses and toffee and a punchy whiskey flavor that dominates the whole. There is an annual version that is not barrel-aged and that, too, is among my personal Top Ten and is immensely satisfying. My ONLY complaint, in fact, is that the only way I (and you) are going to reliably get any is for me to drive to Bellingham, 123 miles north of my house, through traffic that would make Jesus curse like a sailor. But I do it, every two, three years or so, because I am addicted and there is no Barleywines Anonymous.

Peticolas Brewing “The Duke”: My step-son shipped me a box of beer from this venerable Dallas brewery when he moved down to Cowtown in 2019 and several of the cans involved were shockingly impressive but none was the total jaw-dropper of The Duke, a BW in the contemporary style that shows lighter and more reddish in the glass but, properly made, sacrifices none of the intensity and depth of the style.

The Duke is a hefty 12% ABV and is a veritable ester-fest of fruit leather flavors, brandied apples, dark caramels, wood, pipe tobacco, and ciderish tree fruit. It has an amazing oomph on the tongue and the grain flavors are emphatic and stunningly mellow. It’s an absolutely delicious beer and the Peticolas website acknowledges this user-friendly appeal, saying, “Be careful with this one, the 12% alcohol will sneak up on you after just 12 ounces. The DUKE is the Truth.

As is Peticolas.

E9 Brewing “Sekiu”: the closest brewery to my house, now that Wingman Brewers hit the skids, E9 was one of my fave WA breweries, anyway, so whenever I see Sekiu (or it’s “little” brother, Aniak) on tap, I make a four minute drive and get my fist around one. It’s a no-brainer. Shane Johns, fast becoming one of the country’s most-recognized makers of sour/brett/wild ales, knocked the cover off this beer, with a dark, chewy, deep Strong that sports its vivid Bourbon barrel character proudly and tosses in notes of dark caramels, black cherries, licorice, burnt sugar, toffee, and sugar plums. At 10% its alcohol is moderate, for a Barleywine, but it’s so friendly and approachable that you could easily overserve yourself.

Sekiu is available in cans, which makes it immune to light and easy to chill and bring back to a suitable drinking temp – a tad warmer than the usual 47 degrees.

Driftwood Brewing “Old Cellar Dweller”: The beer that I am chronically most PISSED OFF about of any made anywhere. This is probably, year to year, my all-time favorite Barleywine – and I CANNOT GET IT!! Driftwood, located in Victoria, British Columbia, is a FINE, as in “DAMNED fine!” brewery. Their basic IPA, “Fat Tug” is a Canadian icon and NONE of the beers I’ve tasted from them sinks to even “pretty good”. “OCD” as they call it, IS as obsessive-compulsive as the monogram suggests. As the photos above show (2011, L/2019, R) it has changed a bit, over the years, since I was actually selling it, through their Seattle-area distributor, (they are no longer imported to the US) back in the early 20-teens, to today, when I somehow manage to visit Victoria ONLY either just before or after it’s released and it’s summarily Sold Out. I have driven across Victoria, a chore I wouldn’t wish on Ivanka Trump, and found a big fat NOTHING. The pandemic, of course, closed the border and we haven’t been back since but I still follow their Facebook page and allow them to taunt me further with each new release announcement.

IF you love Barleywine as I do and happen to find yourself in or around Western BC, sometime barely after the OCD release date, DO buy this. Enjoy it. Because I know you will. Just DO NOT GODDAMNIT tell me about it.

There are MANY more: Nils Oscar, Reuben’s Brews “Barnacles” and “Three Ryes Men”. Pelican “Mother of All Storms”, Holy Mountain “Hand of Glory”, AleSmith “Old Numbskull”…and even more. The really uber-nichey styles like Grisette and Steinbier aside, Barleywine is the quasi-mainstream ale style most widely misunderstood. Gaining a real knowledge of it and appreciation for it is not all that hard…but if you don’t practice moderation…DON’T.