Your Comments, Criticisms and Contributions - March 2005
I've recently been exposed to the taste of barley wines, and I must say that I was impressed with this style of beer. I've been looking on the web for a general opinion of the top barley wines, both English & American styles, but I haven't found any solid information in terms of a "tasters-choice" list. Would you mind offering your personal list of top barley wines for English and American styles (although I'm not sure what the difference is between these two styles yet)? So far, I've only had Stone Brewing Co.'s Old Guardian and Sierra Nevada's Bigfoot.
Any opinion that you may offer would be greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
- Kurt Winder
The difference between Brit and American bw's is simply hops -- the American ones use a whole lot more. That's a simplification, as US bw's usually have higher strength and less of a rich, caramelly maltiness, too, but it strikes at the heart of the question.
Every time I retry Young's Old Nick Barley Wine I'm reminded of how this lovely ale tends to be unjustly ignored by the beer cognoscenti on this side of the pond. It is a tremendous British bw, as is the Sam Smith version and Fuller's Golden Pride, if you can find them.
On the American side of things, the 'Holy Trinity' is Anchor, Sierra and Rogue, but there are many, many very fine bw's to be had from others. Off the top of my head, I think of Victory's Old Horizontal, Midnight Sun's Arctic Devil and AleSmith's Old Numbskull, not to mention this month's TOTM! And that's just for starters.
My advice is just to keep sampling. New and very good bw's appear almost daily at this time of year.
RE: Molson-Coors
please answer a dispute: who took over whom? did molson take over coors or did coors take over molson? which one was more in need of help? not just a "merger"? which beer company needed/or started/initiated the "merger"? thank you.
- abdella & redden
Officially, the union was a "merger of equals." To say anything more would be speculation. Of course, when Interbrew merged with Labatt, the same story was told, but who's "equal" now?
Could you tell me the beer that magnum drinks in the episodes of magnum p.i.?
- D. Durham
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