Balanced Sweetness in a Glass...
Written: Apr 04 '02
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Rich, strong, malty ale
Cons: Outrageously overpriced dinky 7 ounce bottles
The Bottom Line: One of the best barleywine ales in America -- a rich, sweet glass of malt gladness. What a shame Anchor can't price it right!
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| mrkstvns's Full Review: Anchor Old Foghorn |
It's no secret that I love strong beers. "Bigger the better," is the credo by which I choose my beers. That is why barleywines are some of my favorite beers in the world -- I just love the rich, sweet, smooth maltiness that comes through in every bulging glass. One of the finest American-made barleywines on the market is the bold tasting Old Foghorn, from San Francisco's Anchor Brewery. Let's grab a bottle out of the beer fridge and take this puppy for a test-taste, shall we?
First, a little background on what it takes to make a truly great barleywine...
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 are also 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. Occasionally, American made brands (such as Sierra Nevada Bigfoot) may bear a distinctive citric hop signature.
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.
A Glass of Old Foghorn
I think big barleywines work best in big wine goblets, so that's what I'll use today for the Old Foghorn. The shape of the goblet helps concentrate the aromatics, plus it makes for an enticing presentation. A brandy snifter would also be a good choice in glassware for a beer like this.
Appearance:
What a gorgeous glass of beer! It pours with a deep copper color and kicks up more of a head than I find in a lot of barleywine ales -- not only that, but the head actually hangs on for a while as I sip my way towards the bottom of the glass. Some haze in here makes me think that the beer is unfiltered, which is always a treat with big beers.
Aroma:
Extraordinary complexity with lots of fruitiness melding with caramel and toffee to create an amazing sensory experience. I get apple and pear in here, with some unmistakable pineapple. When I let the beer warm a bit, the toffee seems to almost push the fruity esters aside for its share of the limelight, and that malt signature seems to have a little bit of a honey edge to it. I sometimes think I get a flash of the buttery signature of diacetyl in this beer, and there's just the barest hint of alcohol.
Flavor:
Incredible! People buy Old Foghorn for its flavor -- it's wonderfully big, huge, enormous flavor. This is a very heavy bodied beer with an almost syrup-like intensity. It is redolent with complex malt flavors and sugars with a very deep-seated hop bitterness backing it up and putting that malt into check, just a little bit. Some of the fruitiness -- especially the pineapple ester -- comes through in the flavor too, and it melds with the malt to create a delightfully rich taste sensation. After I swallow the beer I can feel a tingly alcoholic warming sensation as the beer passes down towards my stomach -- it's the way my tummy smiles!
Verdict:
Anchor's Old Foghorn is one of the finest barleywines produced in the United States today. It is big, it is beautiful. It is a five-star beer all the way.
But I don't want to give it a five star rating here. Why not? Well, because it is also a terrible value.
Anchor bottles Old Foghorn in dinky little 7 ounce bottles that retail in 4-packs for about $13-14. That is ridiculous! Other American breweries with beers of equal quality bottle barleywines in 12-ounce bottles and retail six packs for under $10. If I can pick up a six of Sierra Nevada Bigfoot, Dominion Millenium, or Victory Old Horizontal, all in 12-ounce bottles for $9-10, why can't Anchor give consumers a reasonable size package for a competitive price?
About Anchor Brewing
Anchor Brewing is both an old stalwart regional brewery and a pioneer of the modern craft brewery movement. The company's owner, Fritz Maytag, is widely known in beer circles where he is respected for his craftsmanship and his revival of the steam beer style. Anchor's San Francisco brewery is a mecca for serious beer connoisseurs, not just for its great beer, but for its use of traditional brewing methods. From the huge copper kettles to the rows of shallow open fermenters, the brewery feels like a home for great beer.
Related Reviews
Anchor Steam
http://www.epinions.com/fddk-review-CA5-82FE181-393FDA11-prod4
Recommended:
Yes
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