Tonight's beer: Avery Hog Heaven
Juicy citrus front and center—grapefruit and orange, with traces of lemons maybe—backed by spears and spikes of pine. Caramel, toast, bread—hints of something almost buttery—form a backbone and structure and provide stability if not balance. Grass, flowers, maybe some earthy impressions add layers of bitterness through the finish; a trace of spice struggles to emerge. Juicy-sweet to start; dries out gradually but thoroughly.
Slightly thick and chewy, with decent carbonation; a bit sticky, mostly toward the finish. Somewhat drying, with a dim hint of boozy heat. Even if it tastes a lot like a Double IPA, it *feels* like a Barleywine to me. Filling and satisfying, with a long scrubbing and scouring finish.
The brewery describes this as "dangerously drinkable," and I'm not going to disagree, at all; they also say that if they were going to assign this beer to a style now, they'd call it an Imperial Red instead of a Barleywine (but Imperial Red didn't really exist as a style, then); I wouldn't argue with them, but I have no problem calling it a Barleywine, either: It feels like one, and has that heavily-caramelized malt flavor my palate parses as buttery. Delicious, from start to finish, with very little warning of the 9.2% ABV boozy payload it's carrying. Intense and complex; integrated but not balanced. A beer I've been looking to try for a while; now, I'm going to be looking to drink it again.
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| Avery Hog Heaven |
Juicy citrus front and center—grapefruit and orange, with traces of lemons maybe—backed by spears and spikes of pine. Caramel, toast, bread—hints of something almost buttery—form a backbone and structure and provide stability if not balance. Grass, flowers, maybe some earthy impressions add layers of bitterness through the finish; a trace of spice struggles to emerge. Juicy-sweet to start; dries out gradually but thoroughly.
Slightly thick and chewy, with decent carbonation; a bit sticky, mostly toward the finish. Somewhat drying, with a dim hint of boozy heat. Even if it tastes a lot like a Double IPA, it *feels* like a Barleywine to me. Filling and satisfying, with a long scrubbing and scouring finish.
The brewery describes this as "dangerously drinkable," and I'm not going to disagree, at all; they also say that if they were going to assign this beer to a style now, they'd call it an Imperial Red instead of a Barleywine (but Imperial Red didn't really exist as a style, then); I wouldn't argue with them, but I have no problem calling it a Barleywine, either: It feels like one, and has that heavily-caramelized malt flavor my palate parses as buttery. Delicious, from start to finish, with very little warning of the 9.2% ABV boozy payload it's carrying. Intense and complex; integrated but not balanced. A beer I've been looking to try for a while; now, I'm going to be looking to drink it again.
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