Please pardon misspellings in this poat - I always underestimate the potency of a Barleywine!
That's because the Barleywine, IMO the finest expression of British craftsmanship (with apologies to Shakespeare and Milton) is a potent brew that is so well-balanced that you forget how intoxicating it is.
A barleywine is not a strong ale. It is an entirely different creature, a triumph of the art of the brewer, or proof that he doesn't know what he's doing. You can't screw around with a barleywine; you are on a tightrope 70 stories up in the air without a net.
The yardstick, historically, has been Thomas Hardy's Ale, which is well-named because the brew is as rich as Mr Hardy's novels.
What's so hard? Well, you can't just pound in the hops like today's unbalanced and downright ridiculous hop-monster Imperial Super Quad Belgian Magna IPA ales that you see at every trendy bar. And it's a tricky matter indeed to make a high-gravity ale at any time, trying to extract all the sugars you can and then ferment them with honest, hard-working yeast into something drinkable, and then to balance it with enough hops to bring those heavy cellos and basses back into balance with some brassy hops... It's exhausting just thinking about it. Do I need Mr Pabst, or Mr Beethoven?
Well, for a Barleywine, you need Beethoven. White Birch got it right. Bravo, Maestro!
Comments