2008 Top 10 Barley Wines #1 Old Ruffian

Old Ruffian Barley Wine - Great Divide Brewing Company
Old Ruffian is a hefty, hop-forward Barley Wine. Seemingly mellow at first sniff, with its subtle fruit aromas and complex caramel sweetness, this deep mahogany-hued ale quickly shows its true character marked by bold hop flavors and massive hop bitterness. Old Ruffian’s rich, slightly creamy, caramel malt mouthfeel balances its grapefruit, pine, and floral hop flavors, working wonders on your palate. A mind-numbing 90 International Bittering Units (IBUs).

Fred - Hair of the Dog Brewing Company, OR
Fred was created to honor beer writer and historian Fred Eckhardt. Fred is a big inspiration for me and many other brewers. Fred's work in all-grain brewing and beer styles helped me become a better brewer. Fred the beer is a deep golden color. It is made with aromatic and rye malts and includes 10 different hop varieties in an effort to incorporate the whole world into this beer. It has 10% alcohol by volume and 65 IBUs. We hope that Fred will inspire you to share your knowledge with others as Fred has with us.

Bigfoot Barley Wine - Sierra Nevada, Chico, CA
Bigfoot Ale is an award-winning example of the traditional barleywine ale style. It boasts a dense, fruity bouquet; an extremely rich, intense palate; and a deep, reddish-brown color. This ale is superbly balanced between an almost overpowering maltiness and a wonderfully bittersweet hoppiness.

John Barleycorn Barley Wine - Mad River Brewing Company
Mad River Brewing Company honors the Harvest & Holidays each year by brewing a traditional Barleywine style ale, using a variety of ingredients. The Label, created by local artist Janis Taylor, is a folksy woodcut based on the tale of John Barleycorn in verse.

Brewed in small 10-barrel batches with Certified Organic barley malt, this crimson hued ale has a sweet caramel nose with a zesty spicy, citrus taste. It has a slight hop finish and leaves a warm, tingling sensation on the tongue. A great winter warmer!

Palate is sweet up front, with notes of caramel and oats and a hint of tropical fruit. The hops come through mid-palate, providing an assertive yet mellow bitterness. The finish has a nice bready sweetness, along with just a hint of tropical fruit and a trace of lingering hoppy bitterness.

Old Crustacean - Rogue Ales, Newport, OR
Old Crustacean is brewed with eight ingredients, Great Western Harrington, Klages, Hugh Baird Carastan and Munich Malts, Chinook and Centennial Hops, free-range coastal water and PacMan yeast. Old Crustacean is best when aged for one year. Old Crustacean is available in a new 750-ml ceramic swingtop bottle and on draft. Measurements: 25 degrees Plato, IBU 110, Apparent Attenuation 83, Lovibond 57, ABV 11.5%.

Stone Old Guardian -  Stone Brewing Company, CA
Stone Brewing is known for a big attitude and even bigger beers. As a result, it is no small news that one of their biggest, Stone Old Guardian Barley Wine, is being released. A perfect example of all that is big and bold in beer, Old Guardian's malt character weighs in with a huge 11.26% alc.vol. and is accented by a near-critical level of hops.

Old Foghorn - Anchor Brewing, CA
Old Foghorn is highly hopped, using only Cascade hops. It is fermented with a true top-fermenting ale yeast. Carbonation is produced by an entirely natural process called "bunging," which produces champagne-like bubbles. Our "barleywine ale" is dry-hopped with additional Cascade hops while it ages in our cellars.

Olde School Barleywine - Dogfish Head Brewery, DE
This ale starts out with a warm light fruit flavor, e.g. apricots, pears, red apples. Then the 15.04% abv slowly creeps in. The alcohol slowly warms your taste buds more and as the beer warms. No hops can be detected in this brew. The finish was a nice balance of warmth and summery fruit.

Full Sail Boardhead Barleywine Ale - Full Sail, OR
This smooth and fruity barleywine ale is a delicious brew to sip in chilly  weather. Deep and robust, it is brewed using two-row Pale, Dextrin and Crystal malts, combined with flaked barley, to give it a strong malty body. Hopped with Willamette, Styrian, Goldings and Centennial hops, Old Boardhead Barleywine finishes with a pleasant hoppiness.

Alaskan Barley Wine  - Alaskan Brewing Co., AK 
This was a brew done for the GABF '04 competition. They had it on tap at the brewery around and during the fest. Poured, the short dark almond head settles quickly, letting the rich opaque hazelnut color show almost immediately. The nose is powered mainly by the kick-you-in-the-butt 10.4% AC, but with a strong undercurrent of malted barley and a faint roasty waft. On first taste, the alcohol is again overpowering, but the barley makes its way through much more readlily. As it warms, the barley malt takes controll of the palate and steers you to some of the subtle bready and roasted malt, backed up by a slightly bitter hop flavor.