Curl Up With the Warming Sensation of Old Nick
Written: Oct 09 '02
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Big malty character
Cons: Not available in every store everywhere
The Bottom Line: Young's Old Nick is an amazingly soft, well-rounded, malty tasting dark English barleywine that can warm hearts and souls on even the coldest winter night.
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| mrkstvns's Full Review: Young's Old Nick Barleywine Style Ale |
If ever there was a perfect beer style for cool evenings in front of a cozy, warm fireplace, it must be barleywine. These bigger than life beers with powerfully complex flavor profiles and alcohol levels that can knock the socks off novice beer drinkers, are some of the most wonderful taste experiences the gastronomic world has to offer.
I love big beers, and I love tons of flavor in my beer. I love barleywines in all their variations, and I love the way they differ so much from brewery to brewery and from country to country. There are a lot of great barleywines in the world, and if I ever dared say that one was hands-down "the best", I'd be sure to get it wrong. But I think I'm pretty safe in saying that Young's Old Nick is one of the sweetest and tastiest treats that British brewers offer the beer-drinking world. Many beer drinkers regard Old Nick as a classic, and one of the best examples you can buy of a dark English barleywine. Let's take a bottle of Old Nick out for a test taste, but before we pop the lid, let's ponder for a moment just what it is that makes barleywine such a wonderful tippel.
What I Look for in Barleywine Ales...
Big and bold and sweeter than sugar itself! That's the essence of barleywine in a nutshell. Barleywines are among the most powerful, rich, and potent denizens of the beer world.
Within their bigness, barleywines can vary considerably. Some are fairly light in color, while others are dark brown. Many have light carbonation. Most have hugely complex aromas with fruit and malt obvious to even the most untrained palate.
While these are beers that emphasize malt sweetness, they can also be hugely hoppy beers with hopping rates of 70 IBU (and more). The hops don't always show themselves though, they kind of hide behind the curtain of malt and just work to push the beer a little bit towards the middle of the balance scale so that it doesn't come across as a glass of sugar. The hops balance and they add complexity to what is already a very complex flavor profile.
Some people don't like all that complexity. The alcohol levels are sometimes obvious, and the beers can bear signs of oxidation that would be considered flaws in other styles, but that add to the mileau of flavors in a barleywine (to a point anyway -- there is always such a thing as excess).
In the brewery, barleywines are often made using first runnings from a parti-gyle mashing scheme (where two batches are made from a mash, one high gravity, one low gravity). Gravities of 25 Plato and higher are common. Long boils may be used. Additional sugars may be added. Many breweries age their barleywines before bottling.
When I'm drinking a glass of barleywine, I think about all of this stuff, but I mostly concentrate on the immensity of the beer and the cleanliness of the flavor. The two factors that I think separate the men from the boys (or the girls from the women, in a couple breweries) in this category are the balance and the way that off-putting flavors, especially fusel alcohols, are minimized.
Sampling a Glass of Old Nick...
Barleywines shine to best advantage when poured into snifter glasses, so that's what I'm using to sample this bottle of Old Nick. Now, without further ado, let's pour a glass and commence to tasting!
Appearance:
What a gloriously beautiful beer! Under the thick tawny head is a wonderful deep copper colored brew with deep garnet and ruby red highlights that flash with brilliance as I hold the beer up to the light. The beer is brilliantly clear without so much as a hint of haze.
Aroma:
Big complex aroma with lots of elements fighting their way to front and center stage. I pick up lots of fruit right off the bat, with traces of apple and plum, but mostly apricot I think (though Michael Jackson claims to pick up banana -- I didn't get banana at all, just apricot). When I come back for a second sniff, I get mostly toffee with the slightest hint of soft chocolate at the edges. The toffee scent dominates as the beer warms up a bit.
Flavor:
Big and chewy malt character with some toffee, chocolate, and a slight hint of caramelized burnt sugar. There is also a deep-seated fruitiness with the flavor of black plums. The body is full, but never overbearing. Like many English barleywines, Old Nick is lighter bodied and lower in alcohol than many of its American counterparts (this beer, with a hefty starting gravity of 21 degrees Plato and 7.2 percent alcohol is still substantially lighter than American classics like Bigfoot, which clocks in at a whopping 10.1 percent).
This is still a big beer though, make no mistake, and it packs a huge malt wallop. The body is light enough that most experienced beer drinkers could quaff a couple of Old Nicks without batting an eye, but it's still plenty big to make women, children, small domestic animals, Bud drinkers, and various types of girly-men turn up their noses in horror at the thought of flavor actually muscling its way into the glass. ]
The hops are nicely restrained on this beer. I get a nice deep-seated lingering bitterness that tells me the beer probably has quite a lot of hops in the kettle (and in fact, it does, since I know the beer is hopped to 50+ IBU using Goldings and Fuggles), but I like the way the hops flavor lurks in the background letting the big complex malt character shine.
As the beer warms, it becomes softer in body, and the caramel and toffee character become more pronounced. This is a beer that definitely benefits from never being served colder than cellar temperatures. I recommend serving it about 50 degrees Fahrenheit to really let it shine in its best light.
Verdict:
An excellent beer, and one of the finest English style barleywines you can buy. I recommend this beer wholeheartedly. I especially recommend it to drinkers who like the big malty flavor of some American barleywines, but who find the high alcohol levels and enormous densities a little offputting. Old Nick is a softer, gentler barleywine with a more rounded and sophisticated flavor profile.
If you are educating yourself in beer styles, a fun exercise is to drink Old Nick side-by-side with a few other barleywines to compare flavors and see which way your own preferences run. Try comparing the malt character of Old Nick with Anchor Old Foghorn, then contrasting them both with the huge hops wallop of Sierra Nevada Bigfoot. If you're on the east coast, I'd compare Old Nick to Victory's deliciously malty Old Horizontal, then maybe contrast it with the big hop character of Dominion's Millenium, or maybe the over-the-top fusel and ester character of Brimstone's Big Strong Ale. No matter which beers you choose, you'll be in for a good time, some enlightening drinking, and just maybe a thrumming headache in the morning...stock up on the Anacin!
Bottom Line...
I heartily recommend Old Nick to anyone who likes big, bold beers. The malt character on Old Nick is exceptional and it is unquestionably one of the best British-brewed barleywines you can buy. This is a top-flight beer, and as cool weather approaches, fall and winter evenings just beg for a nicely rounded, big beer like this while sitting in front of a cozy fireplace.
Until next time, see you at the pub. As always, there's no telling what I'll be drinking next...pull up a stool and let your palate do a little exploration of its own.
Recommended:
Yes
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