Every year in the January/February time period, the pub staff and a lineup of guests sample a selection of that outlier style, the barleywine. For 2022, we had set a couple of dates but had to postpone them due to some life stuff happening. Then it got to be summer when a young beer drinker’s fancy turns to lighter styles. Well, not us!

Gathering in the air conditioned climate of our favorite winery and meadery, Broken Brix in St. Charles IL, The Brit and his co-hosts faced the challenge of six high-ABV barleywines, most of which were barrel-aged, and brewed in several states, including our home state of Illinois.

The guest lineup was a local who’s who of the craft beer industry, and in the photo below, left to right; Ed Seaman from Broken Brix, Chuck Fort from Church Street Brewing, Steve Newman from Brother Chimp Brewing, Tom & Cindy Rau from Art History Brewing, Ken McMullen from Hopvine Brewing, and craft beer consumer, Tom Ryan.

This year, we had a barrel-aged theme, with 2 entrants from Illinois, and one each from Ohio, Colorado, Arizona, and Oregon. Which ones did the panel prefer? Listen in and hear our comments and conversation! Plus, there’s bonus brews at the end supplied by our host Ed and one from Steve.

Our Barleywine Lineup:

• Around the Bend Brewing, Chicago IL – Proximal, Barrel aged barleywine September 2019, 13% ABV
• Platform Beer Co., Cleveland OH – Panic Switch, Barrel aged rye barleywine, 11%
• Dry Dock Brewing Co., Aurora CO – Hazelnut Bligh’s Barleywine ale aged in bourbon barrels for 10 months, 11.5% ABV
• Sedona Brewing Co., Sedona AZ – Barleywine, 15% ABV
• AleSong Brewing and Blending, Eugene OR – Maestro, Barley wine aged in a combination of whiskey (bourbon, wheat and rye) and red wine barrels, 13.2% ABV
• Flossmoor Brewery, Flossmoor IL – 2017 Wooden Hell barleywine aged in bourbon barrels, 9.1% ABV
• Flossmoor Brewery, Flossmoor IL – 2021 Wooden Hell barleywine aged for 25 months in Heaven Hill bourbon barrels, 25th anniversary edition, 11% ABV

Our ‘Bonus’ Barleywines:

• Brother Chimp Brewing, North Aurora IL – Samson, Barleywine, 10.2% ABV
• Sierra Nevada Brewing, Chico CA – 2000 Bigfoot Barleywine, 9.6% ABV

Play the audio podcast on our players above…or your favorite smartphone podcast app. We have a direct link to iTunes and Spotify below…and lots of other links on the sidebar!