Part 1: In our pursuit to expand our barrel program, we came to a point of wanting to fill barrels with something besides big, burly, Imperial Stouts. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE stouts. You can pack so much flavor into them and there are seemingly never ending directions to go in as far as fruit, coffee, coconut, Vanilla or even breakfast cereal inspired adjuncts. This beer isn’t about that. This beer, although it is a big beer and you would think there would be lots of things to hide behind, you need to be technically sound to execute. I love being challenged. I love challenging our brewers to explore new and fun things and not to be scared of a challenge either.

Our first take on an English-Style Barleywine was inspired by a very popular seasonal release by one of my favorite breweries. I have always preferred English Barleywines to their American counterparts. The generally sweeter English-style, in my mind, lends itself better to barrel-aging as a barrel tends to add a bit of a tannic/drying component to a beer. A beer this big maxes out our 30ish year-old brewhouse. A beer this high-gravity takes us about 1,000 pounds of malted barley to give us enough sugar. It’s a pain to hand-stir that much malt. Likewise, it’s a pain to clean out that much grain and put it into barrels for our local farmer, and Paddler. (Shout out Jason!!). I say all this to say that this beer is a chore to make, anxiety-inducing to ferment, and takes a lot of patience to wait for it to be finished aging in barrels. All of that makes it so much better when it’s in a glass and being sipped with your favorite people. We will keep you updated on the progress of our English-Style Barleywine. Cheers!!

Nick Driskell GM/Head Brewer