Opinions: Barley Whine?

Yes, they have a following. The boldness, complexity and depth of flavors, and sometimes just the flat-out hugeness of them are all appealing to people. They're not for everyone.

NS Bigfoot is an American-style barley wine. Try an English-style one. The styles are very different.

Phil

It's an acquired taste.

I couldn't drink the stuff the first time I tried it, either. Made me want to gag. But, years later, after developing a taste for both wine and highly malted ales, I now love the stuff. If you've grown up on N. American lagers you'll need to develope a taste for malt, something virtually absent from American beers. Take your time. Sneak up on it. It's worth the effort.

nb

Phil gurgled drolly and upchucked news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Bigfoot tasted like Bigfoot himself had stomped the barley. Nasty stuff.

This goes on to show how varied people's taste can be. To me Bigfoot is a delightful beer with highly complex and fruity malt profile with a nice balance provided by the aggressive hopping. A good American Barleywine is what I would call, the polar opposite of a light beer. Those light beers taste like cereal grains with tap water run over them. How people can tolerate that piss is beyond me.

There you go!

Basically, it's the difference between tasting the grains and not tasting the grains. Wonder Bread vs pumpernickel. If you don't like pumpernickel, stick with bud/coor/mil and quit worrying about it.

nb

Yet I found Thomas Hardy (just tried one) to be horrible and I'm not a lite beer wonder bread kins of guy. I like malt way more than hops. I did like the Barley Wine from Full Sail in Oregon. I guess it is all in the eye (tongue) of the beholder.

Care to recommend any in particular? Ones that can actually be found in the US would be ideal, but that may be too much to ask for.

George

I loved Bigfoot from my first try of it, but others might want to ease their way into barleywine with something gentler, like a Young's Old Nick.

Brooklyn Monster, Heavyweight Old Salty, Thomas Hardy Ale are English-style barley wines (IIRC). I brew my own, so I don't look any further than my kitchen.

Phil

In what way was it nasty?

_Randal

We are just now getting the barleywines here in South Georgia. The only one I tried is the Rogue and it was terrible. Had a medicine taste. Just not use to the high alcohol content I guess. But I love the Belgian Ales we are finally getting.

bluestringer

AFAIC, Barleywines are just like any other style. Some you're gonna like, others aren't worth a hoot.

Ew... Even if you like white bread over pumpernickel, you can do better than Wonder Bread (budmillercoors)!

Me, I like pumpernickel! I just finished a Bigfoot as a matter of fact, and I loved it like the many I've had in the past.

Yeah I think so, well and experience. For example, it took a long time before I could drink a bitter when I first started on real beer. A nut brown ale was pretty much as far as I could go then. Now, well, bring it on! Bitters, Stouts, Porters, love 'em all! Barley Wine took a while to get used to, I didn't like it at first. So give TH a try in a year after you've downed a few more from Full Sail and see what you think: you might like it, then again, maybe not.

I was wondering why you use one of my e-mail addresses when posting? This attracts a lot of spam and other things to my mailboks and it makes it look like you post as me.

Please change this.

Best wishes, Andreas Heldal-Lund # home.online.no/~heldal #

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