News
A new Gallup poll out recently shows that adult consumers now prefer beer to wine by a double digit margin. This is a bit of a reverse in trends from previous years, where in 2005 wine actually was in the lead, causing some to say that beer was dead. Looking at the results of this poll, you know it doesn’t surprise me much. My guess is that during economic slow times, beer may move up the beverage scale because it can be cheaper than wine.
Barleywine History Part II
- Well we have been promising you some history on the barleywine, and wouldn’t you know it has taken us up until the last show of the series to deliver on that promise. But hey, better late than never.
- Barleywines, like many of the ales that we talk about, orginated in England in the early 1700s. Up until this time, the upper class in England was drinking wine from France, with many of the brewers rather envious of that fact.
- Slowly, a wealthy merchant class began to arise, that already seemed to have a bit of a liking for beer, and brewers started to play a little bit with yeast and stronger worts, slowly creating products that rivaled wines in both strength and complexity.
- Early on, these beers may have been called October beers, Dorchester beers, malt liquors, or malt wines, but by the early 1800s, the term barley wine was being used.
- These beers are not easy to brew because no only to you have to get a very strong sugary wort, at times actually adding sugar to raise it enough, but you also have to get the yeast to convert more sugar than they are used to.
- Originally, these were first probably brewed by butlers for wealthy families, who could take their time and create a wonderful product. All I have to say is I want me a butler like that!
Victory Old Horizontal
- So tonight we hit the last beer of the series, and it is from an old familiar brewery to faithful YNB listeners, Victory Brewing Company from Downingtown, PA.
- It was founded in 1996 by Ron Barchet and Bill Covaleski in an old Pepperidge Farm bakery, but currently distributed in 23 states.
- Tonight’s beer, Old Horizontal, weighs in at 10.5% abv and is going to be closer to the American style of barleywines, so in other words, it will be a bit more hoppy and aggressive.
- The pour is darker than the last couple weeks, almost like a brown ale or a light porter. Think of like a dark mahogany here.
- The pour actually has a good dark cream head that sticks around for a while.
- The smell is all about hops, and it is aggressive to say the least.
- The taste is once again hops up front. The more the beer warms up, the more the malt comes out, but by no means is this beer as malt forward as it has been the last couple weeks.
Next Week
Thats it, we are done with getting Jim drunk. We are going to move on to something a little lighter, specifically, ambers. We’ll be starting off with New Belgium Brewing Company’s Fat Tire Ale Ale.
Your Next Beer 