Barleywine, the New Varietal?

Well, no. In fact, if you have ever run across a bottle of barleywine, you may have noticed that the bottle is actually labeled “barleywine-style ale.” And, that it came from the beer cooler. Not unlike the dairy industry’s opposition to soy companies referring to their beverages as “milk,” the wine industry opposes breweries from labeling this beer style as wine. Apparently, they are afraid some of us might get confused, but it feels more like elitism to me.

Anyway, I decided to write about barleywine because it is an interesting brew and there are many good bottles of it available in the Fargo-Moorhead area. Barleywines are typically characterized by their high alcohol content, which hovers around the 10% range. They are definitely not a session beer, meaning one should not expect to pick up a six-pack and make a night of it. It is a nice glass to start with, but it shouldn’t be the main event.

Barleywines are also noted as having rich, deep garnet colors. They contain a lot of malted grains, usually double or triple that of a standard beer. That’s where the high ABV comes in, but that is also why barleywines have such full bodies—not to mention the high calories and carbs.

For the brewer, however, it is not simply a matter of loading a ton of grain into the fermenter with the intent to produce a beer with an alcohol content comparable to wine. Rather, it is a careful balance of sweet and bitter, malts and hops. Imperial IPAs (high-gravity India Pale Ales) are often criticized for being too hoppy and unbalanced. However, if there are not enough hops in a beer it becomes too sweet. Therefore, a skilled brewer marvels in the balance of these two essential ingredients. (For the record, I love hops and hardly ever complain of something being too hoppy.)

Three barleywine-style ales that are often available to us in the valley are Sierra Nevada’s Bigfoot Ale, Flying Dog’s Horn Dog Ale, and Avery’s Hog Heaven. Others may come and go, but these are the usual suspects. And for this article, I decided to go with the last two because of how greatly they differ from one another.

Avery Brewing Company, out of Boulder, Colorado, brews Hog Heaven. This ale registers a 9.2% ABV and come in 22oz bottles for around $6. I really enjoy Hog Heaven, but it doesn’t quite feel like a barleywine to me. Avery uses a fair amount of Columbus hops while making this brew, so much so that it registers at 100 international bittering units (IBUs). As a point of reference, a beer like Miller Lite is closer to 10 IBUs. In other words, Hog Heaven is extremely hoppy, and some say too hoppy to be a true barleywine.

Horn Dog, on the other hand, only registers 45 IBUs and does not come across as hoppy at all. Where the Hog Heaven bursts with hoppy, citrus aromas, this one smells very sweet and malty. The hops and malt balance each other quite well. Flying Dog also comes from Colorado, having operations in Denver as well as Frederick, Maryland. Their barleywine has a bit more alcohol than Avery’s, but only by an additional point (10.2%). Fortunately, they distribute Horn Dog in 12oz bottles, which are available in four-packs for around $9.

So even if you probably will never see a barleywine on any standard wine list, I encourage you to give one a try. They offer an interesting twist on two of my favorite beverages: wine and beer. And though they are definitely not wine, a true beer lover can surely enjoy it like one. After all, most improve with age and can be cellared for around three years.

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