Barleywines: The Spiny Echidna of the Beer World

Credit: Natalie Angiers, NYTimes

This spiny fella is an echidna, a reclusive animal that calls Papua New Guinea home. Here are some things you may not know about echidnas (I read this on the internet--DON'T dispute me):

1. Echidnas are monotremes--they poop, copulate, and birth with a single, all-purpose hole. Only three mammalian monotremes remain: both the long-snout (seen above) and short-snout echidna, and everyone's favorite evolutionary clusterf**k, the duck-billed platypus.

2. Echidnas are among the most reclusive animals on earth. They emerge only at night, and are too intelligent to fall for primitive human traps.

3. Echidnas are highly fecund: one echidna mentioned in the NYTimes article was giving birth at age forty-five. In human years, that's over one hundred and twenty years old!*

Many more echidna facts are out there, waiting to be discovered by you. Your blogger suggests hitting up the local libes**, or perhaps you'll want to stay at home and check out the wiki. In any case, it is comforting to be reminded that there are indeed things out there much uglier than me.

*I made this up
**This is what obnoxious girls in college used to call the library. Sometimes I, too, would call it the "libes," but as sardonically as possible.





A DIFFERENT KIND OF ECHIDNA; THE LONG SNOUT REMAINETH

But back to beer. There is a perfectly good reason for our venture into echidna country today: the reclusive, misunderstood barleywine is the beer world's echidna. (I think this is basically the title of the post but I wanted to reiterate.) Granted, barleywine=echidna is an odd analogy. Hopefully by the end of this post, you will agree. Or, at the least, you'll have been entertained. And if you're at the office today, bored out of your skull, that's something you can be thankful for.

Let's do an FAQ for Barleywines!

Q: WHAT IS A BARLEYWINE?
A: a barleywine is a style of beer originating near the end of the 19th century in Britain, and now more popular in the United States. In the U.S., the appellation is sometimes used interchangeably with imperial ambers, Old Ales, and Strong Ales, although there are small differences between the styles. (e.g. Bell's Third Coast is technically an Old Ale, but often marketed as a barleywine.) Barleywines are broadly characterized by [beer geek alert] an original gravity of at least 1.090, an abv of at least 8%, coloring units above 20 and, in the American style, a relatively high IBU count. In layman's, a barleywine is a relatively high-alcohol beer with noticeable hop and a color anywhere between ocher and black.

Q: IS A BARLEYWINE A WINE?
A: No. Barleywines are not wines. They are brewed with malted barley, just like any other beer. Barleywines probably got their name because their abv (alcohol by volume) is as high as that of your ordinary table wine.

Q: WHO INVENTED THE BARLEYWINE?
A: Nobody really "knows" who invented the style; like most beer styles, it probably evolved over time, in more than one place, until a brewer with enough clout finally decided to brew one and officially labeled it. Bass Brewing was the first high-profile brewery to sell a barleywine. They coined the term in 1900 with their "No. 1 Barley Wine." Most likely, they added extra malt and yeast to some existing variation of an amber ale, copper ale, brown ale or porter to achieve "barleywine" status.

Q: IS THE BARLEYWINE THE STRONGEST STYLE OF BEER?
A: By abv, no. Some Belgian and American-style quadruples, imperials, and strong ales have broken the 20% mark. To the palate, the barleywine tends to be assertive, even aggressive, with serious fruit and maltiness and, in the American version, some decent hop.

Q: WHAT ARE SOME BARLEYWINES OF NOTE?
A: In Britain, the Harvey&Son "Elizabethan" barleywine has come highly recommended by a number of OS groupies/brewers. For those willing to splurge a little, sample the Thos. Hardy barleywine, aged at least 20 years in bottle (British barleywines, with their low alpha content and high abv, are perfect for aging.) If it's a big, hoppy domestic barleywine you want, check out the Bell's beer mentioned above; the Rogue Old Crustacean; the Lagunities Gnarlywine; the Green Flash Barleywine; the Harpoon Barleywine; the Sierra Bigfoot (IMO the best American example of the style); or the Dogfish Olde School. Anchor, out of San Fran, makes the original "American-style" barleywine, the Old Foghorn; in your humble blogger's opinion, it may have been the first to the market, but isn't anything special.

Q: I LIVE IN DC. WHERE CAN I FIND A BARLEYWINE?
A: If you're out on the town, Paradiso in Georgetown has a great selection of barleywines. Shopping? Check out Rodmans on Wisc. Ave in Tenleytown, or Chevy Chase Liquors on Conn. Ave. just south of CC Circle. Willing to go a little farther afield? Well's in Baltimore has a great selection.

Q: WHEN SHOULD I DRINK A BARLEYWINE?
A: Barleywines tend to be very sweet, boozy, fruity, malty, and occasionally hoppy creatures; because of this, they do not easily pair with food. Try drinking a barleywine as an apertif, or as a bedtime beer, curled up in bed with a good book. Seasonally speaking, the high abv and malty tones make the barleywine a great cold-weather brew. (Some American barleywines, with their high hop resin content, can work in summer.)

Q: SO WHY, AGAIN, IS AN ECHIDNA LIKE A BARLEYWINE?
A: Barleywines are misunderstood, hard to find. They are a combination of so many competing influences; a barleywine can be mild or hoppy, light or thick, as bright as a big pale or as dark as a stout. Barleywines and echidnas are solitary things, rarely paired--an echidna craves privacy, and a barleywine should be enjoyed on its own, like a brandy. People know the word "echidna," but have no mental picture of what one really looks like; the same goes for a barleywine. (After this post, you should have an idea of what both look like.)

Hopefully I've managed to dispel all those pernicious rumors circulating about ye olde barleywine. You know--those rumors.

HH: Dropping b-wine knowledge all day, son.

Local Brew News
-The Reef (18th & Columbia NW) is starting Wednesday Trivia on the 24th. First prize? $100(!) in free drinks. Runners-up get $50. Plus drink specials, free shirts and glassware, etc. for certain lucky participants. Stop by and play trivia while enjoying a delicious beer on tap.

-Red Derby (14th & Spring NW) to open their rooftop bar later this summer. (Not new news, maybe, but you should get yourself on up there ASAP anyway. Great all-can selection, plus Patrick and Vicki are great bartenders.)

-New place opening at 14th and Newton NW next to the Allegro will apparently be some crazy high-concept restaurant where your waiters are "guides" who sherpa you (yes, Adi, I verbed 'sherpa,') between eating stations. Weird. But the OS Brewers, who live only feet away, will be sure to check it out.

-I think I speak for all of us salivating over the opening of ChurchKey (soon to be @14th & RI Ave, NW): JUST HAPPEN, ALREADY.

"Don't mind me/I wrote this rhyme lightly/Off 'a two or three Heinies/And boy, was they fine, G"
-Doom (an Olde School rhyme for an Olde School beer.)

-HH