Speciality Review #2: Avery's Hog Heaven Barleywine style Ale

Astute readers may notice (hey Nathan what's up) that instead of the term "extreme" I've used specialty. I'm still going to maintain the numbering system I started in the last review because I wan to maintain my continuity. I'm going to give the term a spin for a while, if it doesn't work I'll go back to extreme, if only for a lack of a better term. I don't know, maybe I should frame the discussion in terms of specialty beers antithetical position in relation to the more commonly enjoyed session beer and calling it event beer or something. Anyway, that's not important right now, what is important is the beer I'm reviewing, in this case actually a barley wine, Avery Brewing Company's Hog Heaven Barleywine Style Ale. Now I'm not sure if this is actually a barleywine or just an ale that is made like a barleywine or if there is some geographic protection on the name barleywine (sort of like champagne), but I'm going to treat this as a beer anyway. This is of course problematic but for the sake of my blog (and the fact that only one person reads this blog) and the fact that in this country a barleywine is more or less a speciality brew I will treat it as a beer.

Anyway, I bought this one yesterday because I was in the mood for a "fancy beer" from Belgium. Of course this meant a "Chimay" but I couldn't find a bottle smaller than a 750 so instead I ended up with this bad boy at about the same size.

I hate to keep going back to Dogfish (the next review I do won't allow me to, hopefully) but this beer reminded me strongly of Dogfish 120. The connection is obvious, for all intents and purposes Dogfish 120 is a barleywine, and actually a much stronger one than this one, which only comes in at about 9.2% abv. I really liked this one actually, despite both my father and Nathan sort of dismissing the form altogether. I don't know what Nathan's problem is, but I know my father has had a long history of drinking beer (longer than I've been alive) and whatever his issue was it was probably important. Interestingly enough my father also liked this one, and despite his insistence that he would probably pour most of what I gave him back into my glass he drank all of it. I guess that gives you some idea of quality.


And another thing, I like Avery a lot. I've had their Salvation ale, which is 10%abv and one other which was about 9% abv. Colorado is doing a lot of exciting things with beer, so is Belgium, so is New Belgium. Ok New Belgium is actually just producing a lot of quality session beer, but who ever said that was so bad? Not me that's for sure.



Authorial voice comes through



achh I'm tired of things. Listening to Converge on my new noise canceling headphones, it's pretty intense I feel so disconnected from my typing because I cannot hear it.


Also New Year's celebration coming up, super excited!

Extreme Beer Review Number 1

So here goes the first in a series of reviews on extreme beers. In the coming weeks I will be consuming many of these beers, and also trying to formulate a better terminology.

For my first review I've selected, or rather my father has selected because he paid for it, Lagunitas' Hop Stoopid Ale, which as the title suggests is a rather hoppy beer. It's rated at 102 IBUs (International Bitterness Units) and comes in at a pretty lean (for a beer of its type) 8% abv.

What most pleased me about this beer was its fruity aroma, which comes in as a result of heavy hopping. Lagunitas makes really good stuff, their IPA is basically a mini version of this if I recall correctly (I probably don't). On thing my brother remarked on was that it tasted remarkably similar to Stone's IPA. Though I am familiar in general with Stone's products, I haven't had the IPA so I can't say one way or the other whether my brother's comparison is apt. As far as very hoppy beers go, this one wasn't as bitingly bitter as the 90 minute IPA from Dogfish, which my limited beer knowledge forces me to bring in as a comparison. I liked this beer, I would probably buy it again, but not right away. I guess I could say that for any extreme beer though, the thing that makes it extreme also turns it into a kind of singular experience for me.


Anyway, stay tuned for more beer updates. A new Spec's just opened up and it has a fairly wide selection (for this part of the country) of Dogfish I haven't tried yet.

Extreme beer!

Man every time I come home I get excited, and not just because I haven't seen my family for about 4 months, or that the weather is warmer, or that I have access to all sorts of delicious food on the cheap (free), but because it means I can finally start drinking extreme beers again.

I'm a huge fan of extreme beers, though not so much the term. To me extreme calls forth memories of adderall and mountaint dew fueled sugar freakouts and bland corporate attempts at alternative guitar rock, which I hesitate to associate with my new beverage of choice.

Needless to say, extreme in this case definitely means a deviation from the norm more than a high energy turbo crash.

Extreme beers are characterized by their unwillingness to conform to our notions of what beer should be, going even so far as to violate the sacred tenets set forth by the Bavarians in their Reinheitsgebot. I mean a lot of beers do that, namely any beer from Belgium, but you get my point. The German model for beer, a beverage made of malt, yeast, water and hops has dominated the american scene for so long (though we introduced rice into the equation because it diminishes taste, at least that's why I think it's there) that Americans often forget that other kinds of beer exist and have existed for longer than German style.

This is not to trash the German style mind you, I grew up on it. With such limited ingredients the Germans created an amazing variety of flavor that I can still hardly believe. It's just that extreme beer offers something more. It offers beer fermented with raisins or algae, or beer that has been hopped for 2 hours and then dry hopped for a month! It offers stouts that are so dark no light can escape them. Now how could I, as a burgeoning beer snob, ignore such exciting developments in the field of beer? Let's not be mistaken either, though the Belgians were often freer with their beer than the Germans, even they are being surpassed by us now. We are taking their models and pushing them to extremes, because we have the technology and the know how to be the greatest beer producing nation on earth and by GOD WE ARE


I am not at all sorry that this entry turned into a rant about America. I love this country's beer and frankly I think we get a bad rap because certain corporations have been shoving the same swill down our throats for so long that the rest of the world associates our beer with horse piss.

anyway

I'm going to use this break to drink extreme beers, and not just made by Dogfish either. Reviews to be forthcoming.