30th Anniversary Jack & Ken’s Black Barleywine pours a rich, clear chocolate with a creamy cardboard colored head. When we first poured this, it was straight out of the fridge, and it smelled and tasted rather neutral—not much in the way of anything that jumped out and said awesome. So we put it aside for a half an hour, and then came back to it, and that half an hour was helpful. The nose is creamy, with a touch of dark fruit along with caramel, toffee, and licorice—and surprisingly, not much in the way of roasted malt. Chocolate and caramel open the front—more chocolate than caramel—and the roasted malt comes out in the middle, along with a light touch of the dark fruit, but very very little. I’m guessing that will be on the up and up in the next couple of years. There is also bitterness in the middle, which lingers through the finish. The chocolate also comes back at the end; along with the previously mentioned bitterness, there is also some alcohol that lingers on the palate. Black Barleywine has a rich but uneven mouthfeel—the creamy chewiness is nice, but the alcohol warmth and flavor is a bit too forward currently. The creamy carbonation helps, but this beer does need a couple of those “graceful” years alluded to below to balance the beer and allow flavors to marry, as well as allowing the alcohol to fade back into the beer. The current strength is the bitter roastiness, but even then a bit more time is needed to blend the current alcohol warmth. Happy Anniversary Sierra Nevada, you glorious hoppy West Coast bastards...
Somewhere, the Abyss lurks...
Somewhere, the Abyss lurks...
From the bottle: “Jack McAuliffe was the first American ‘micro’ brewer. His tiny New Albion Brewery in Sonoma, CA inspired countless dreamers to start small-scale breweries of their own. Jack agreed to brew this very special ale with us in honor of our 30th anniversary. This Black Barleywine Ale is a nod to the legendary ales New Albion served at their summer solstice parties. Rich with bitterness and roasted malt flavors, balanced with whole-cone American hops, this robust ale should age gracefully for years.”
ABV: 10.2%
Hops: 100% Cascade
(12/30/2010)
(12/30/2010)
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