I am on some email listings about beer and received this message today about an event in Seattle, USA, which reminded me of the beauty that is the west coast USA practice of naming these strong ales:
Barleywine anyone? The Beveridge Place Pub is having their 3rd annual Barleywine Bacchanal March 4-12 at their pub in West Seattle. The lineup is incredible and will be rotated throughout the week. It's also a chance to check out the new beautiful backbar, if you haven't yet. Here's the lineup and I think you'll agree that there is something for everyone. He's also adding 4 additional taps for this event. Who needs to go to San Francisco, anyway?I have only had the Old Foghorn. What a pleasant prospect to have all these before you - perhance on tap.Anacortes Old Sebastes
Anchor Old Foghorn
Bear Creek Bearlywine
Boundary Bay Old Bounder
Bridgeport Old Knucklehead
Dick's Barleywine 2002
Elysian Cyclops
Far West Ireland Wild Banshee
Fish Leviathan - cask-conditioned
Fish Old Woody 2003
Fish Ten-squared - cask-conditioned
Full Sail Old Boardhead
Hales Rudyard's Rare
Hood Canal Briedablik
Lagunitas Old Gnarlywine
Leavenworth Old Grumpy - cask-conditioned
Marin Old Dipsea
North Coast Old Stock
Pacific Rim Castaway
Rattlesnake Mountain Venom
Rogue Old Crustacean
Scuttlebutt Old No. 1
Sierra Nevada Bigfoot
Skagit River Three Angels
Snipes Mountain Roza
Speakeasy Old Godfather
Thirsty Bear Bearly Legal
Winthrop Buzzards Breath
Winthrop Tombstone
Comments
Joe Reed - March 7, 2005 8:45 am
I've only had the Old Foghorn and Bigfoot. North Coast is consistently high quality, so I'm sure the Old Stock is excellent. Their Old Rasputin is a magnificent imperial stout.
Those are all (or mostly) west-coast breweries and would be difficult to find elsewhere. Some nice east coast barleywines include Victory's Old Horizontal and Heavyweight's Old Salty.
Alan - March 7, 2005 10:08 am
Is there an ur-barleywine that had the word "Old" at the beginning like the much copied "-ator" suffix for the German double bocks?
gary sink - March 10, 2005 6:26 pm
While it is common naming convention to use "Old" in barleywine names, there isn't one known source for the tradition. The term "barleywine" is releatively new, being used by Bass about 100 years ago to describe their "No. 1" strong ale. "Old ale" is another term used for high alcohol british brews, so a combination of factors are in play here. There's a great article at http://www.beernotes.com/rockymtn/articles/000296.html
written by award winning brewers Dick cantwell (Elysian, Seattle) and Fal allen (formerly of Pike, Seattle, and Anderson Valley, CA)
PS: I'm making my way through the entire barleywine list at Beverisge Place. It's a tough job, but someone gotta do it!
Alan - March 10, 2005 6:36 pm
Reviews and digital photos is all we ask for, Gary.