\n\t 
Don’t get me wrong, the regular beers available at the Oregon Brewers Festival are awesome, but after stopping at the “Buzz Tent” for the 13 year old Full Sail Brewing Russian Imperial Stout, I found myself being drawn back to the Buzz Tent to see what cool and interesting beers were popping up. Being in the Midwest, I hadn’t gotten a chance to drink any offerings from Alaskan Brewing (despite having heard of them), so when I saw their 2008 Barleywine appear at the Buzz Tent, I thought I’d try it.
It was a dark brown color and had a thick, creamy, tan head on it. There were definitely some sweet, caramelly/toffee malt aromas coming from my mug.
When I took a drink, the body was solidly medium and the mouthfeel was very velvety – smooth and creamy. The flavors were all malty up front, with a bit of malty alcohol heat in the aftertaste. As I continued to drink it, the finish was a smooth sweet caramelly taste.
If I had to pair this with a food, I think I’d go with a big mushroom and swiss burger with caramelized onions – as the caramel maltiness would go very well with caramelized onions and mushrooms, and the burger would help to soak up the high level of alcohol in this beer. Overall, I found this to be a very good beer. It’s nice when you can have a barleywine that has been properly aged, although I think this one could have been aged for a few more years and emerged with a little less alcohol heat in the finish.
Trackbacks/Pingbacks