No, unfortunately I haven’t had the chance to try it yet, but I love the art work. Dave, I’ll be up this weekend, any chance you could put a little aside for me?

Bald Beaver Barley Wine from Glacier Brewing Company

Prost,

GG

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Seeing all those pioneering craft brewers and home brew legends standing next to each other on the iconic-at-birth Sierra Nevada Brewing Company site dedicated to the project is amazing. Ken Grossman, the man who picked craft brewing up from the ashes left over from the close of the first pioneer Jack McAuliffe to found Sierra Nevada Brewing Company has gathered these and the likes of Fritz Maytag and Fred Eckhardt together to collaborate on a beer to celebrate Sierra Nevada’s 30th Anniversary.

And much like an anniversary or birthday does, it reminds one of how old they are. In this case, it’s a good thing. Craft brewing got it’s rebirth in the 70s, and it took all of these people to bring it to where it is today. Which is why it gives me goose bumps.

Here is a look at a few of the beers:

Fritz' and Ken's Pioneers Stout

Charlie, Fred and Ken Lager

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I had dearly wanted to make the Hard Liver Barley Wine Festival in Seattle this weekend. Unfortunately the economy hasn’t improved enough to afford me that luxury. Oh, well, there is always next year.

However, if you live in the Pacific Northwest and you can get yourself to Seattle on Saturday, you will be rewarded with an amazing array of barley wines like you’ve never seen before.

Having been to the Big Wood Festival at Brouwer’s Cafe, I know this year’s Hard Liver will be amazing.

Prost,

GG

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Widmer Deadlift IPA

When my friend Jon told me he wanted to give his Barista Manifesto at the Ignite Missoula event, I wondered how difficult it would be to give a manifesto with a five-minute time limit accompanied by a PowerPoint presentation. I still don’t know if it was easy, but it was done and brilliantly.

Jon’s a master barista, a coffee judge and an advocate for coffee farmers around the world. He works for Cup of Excellence, a Missoula non-profit with world-wide connections and influence. And as one friend put it recently, “the only people who seem to really understand what Fair Trade really means.”

But I digress. Jon’s Barista Manifesto touched many people last night, not the least of which was Missoula’s honorable mayor John Engen, who shook Jon’s hand shortly after the presentation and then proceeded to hug Jon. I thought that I might have seen a tear in the mayor’s eye briefly, but it could have been the lighting.

The crowd of mixed ages mingled casually, sipping craft beer out of bottles and enjoying the eight five-minute presentations ranging from early childhood development to how to start running when you hate exercise.

Our group, which had gathered to support Jon, moved casually from the Elks Lodge to Jon’s house, where we gorged on fresh-baked cookies left graciously by the babysitter. I really need to find one like that.

A six-pack of Sierra Nevada Brewing Company’s Bigfoot Barley Wine showed up as if by magic, and we broke out tall red wine glasses and poured a whole bottle in each glass. The foam bubbled up creamy and beige, like a cappuccino, and we swirled and talked about flavors like fig, banana, coconut and dried pineapple as we tasted the big beer.

It took almost any hour to kill that bottle, but that’s the beauty of a barley wine, it just opens up the warmer it gets. Soon you’re smelling a veritable jungle of tropical fruits and tasting rich roasted graininess and a strong hop presence. We sipped and talked, sipped and talked. We slipped through the health care debate and rehashed current events here in Missoula. We relived Jon’s awesome Barista Manifesto several times and then came back to the beer. You always come back to the beer.

Until you finish it.

Another beer appeared, as if by magic, and we poured it’s clear, bronze liquor into our wine glasses and smelled a tremendously green and floral hop presence. This was a Widmer Brewing Company Deadlift Imperial IPA, and the use of Nelson Sauvin hops from New Zealand certainly defines this beer. At a reported 9.5 percent ABV, this beer is all in the nose. I couldn’t put my glass down, and we just kept passing it around the room letting everyone stick their noses in our glass.

If I could only smell this beer and not taste it, I would rate it very high, and it’s made me far more interested in those Nelson Sauvin hops than any beer brewed with them I’ve tried before. But I did taste it, and I just wasn’t as impressed with the big-bodied beer with a funky middle to it. Something just below the tongue picks up some dark chewiness that isn’t bad, but it’s funky, and it’s difficult to describe. My friend Beau decided he liked the funk after a few sips. I drank the whole beer and still wondered whether it was growing on me or not. The funk that is.

The barley wine had better alcohol heat balance than the Imperial IPA had, and I’m a huge proponent of keep the imperial designation for beers that really deserve it. A 9.5 percent ABV IPA is good, but it’s still just an IPA. An imperial IPA should stand up for itself and take a bow in anything above a 10 percent ABV range. I see far too many in the 7.2 o 8.2 range.

We could’ve kept our conversation going until all hours of the morning, or if the beer ran out, but it was a Thursday night, and we knew there were more beers to meet on Friday and Saturday.

Prost,

GG

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According to a recent Kettlehouse Brewing Company update on Facebook:

I just talked to Brad at the Rhino and we’re going to stash a keg of Barleywine in his basement cooler for a year. Crack it open next year for Barlyewine fest. Which is going on now at the Rhino. Check it out.

Anybody got any more info? Guess I’ll see you at the Rhino!

GG

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George Washington was said to have a taste for porter style beer, something which he brewed at his plantation before, during and after his terms as the first president of the United States of America. Well, I don’t know for sure if he brewed during his actual presidency, but that would be cool. I often wonder what a home brewing president might be like. I have a feeling that Obama probably doesn’t drink a lot of craft beer. In fact, when watching those television shows about the folks who serve the president, I’m often a little dismayed at the personal beer choices for Air Force 1 or White House state dinners.

But Washington brewed and drank great beer, as did many of the founding fathers.

In honor of the proud tradition of early brewers, my pick for a President’s Day beer is Stone Brewing Co.’s Old Guardian Barley Wine.

According to the Stone Brewing Co. blog, the 2010 release of this beer is today, so you won’t likely get any unless you live in Southern California, but if you see some, pick it up and put it away for next President’s Day.

Prost,

GG

Old Guardian

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kettlehouse Brewing Co.'s Barley Wine

There are a lot of really bad things going on. Monster snowstorms that just confirm that Montanans are and always will be superior to the East Coasters, earthquakes in Haiti and war in Iraq and Afghanistan. I bet you forgot about those, didn’t you?

But there are simple reminders of all that is right with the world. This is not one of them.

In fact, Kettlehouse Brewing Co.’s Barley Wine is nothing short of biotechnology in a glass. It must be so. If you follow the smell and taste procedure required to look like an idiot while you’re sipping a beer from a snifter, you’ll notice a sweet, fruity and malty nose that hearkens to dried fruit of the tropical variety. I’m talking coconut flakes, fig and banana with something I can’t quite put my finger on. Must be a fruit I’ve had but can’t remember the name. Then you take a sip, and sure enough those hints of the tropics are right there, along with a smooth maltiness that just seems to want to stay in your mouth all day. Then BLAM! the hops descend on you like Attila the Hun. They pound your brain until your eyes want to water, and there is a strange effervescence that seems to run around your mouth like pop rocks mixed with Coca Cola.

I think I shook my head three or four times, probably involuntarily, after the first sip. And I dipped my nose in the glass to see what telltale signs of magnanimous hop usage must surely be there. But there were none, only a tame, fruity barley smell. In a few minutes, my senses calmed down and I sniffed again, followed by a big sip, which I swished around my mouth trying to find that illusive fruit I must have eaten as a child in some foreign country. But it wouldn’t come to me. Star Fruit, no, Jack Fruit, no, I have no idea, but that Kettlehouse Barley Wine surely has something unique on it that makes me want to put it under a microscope and dissect it.

If you get a chance to stop in to kettlehouse Brewing Co.’s Southside location at Myrtle St., please do. This is one fine beer that needs to be appreciated enough to convince Tim and the crew to bottle it, can it, put a few kegs away for next year to see how it ages or otherwise keep this bad boy coming.

Kudos K-Hole!

GG

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My buddy Beau is a really good home brewer. His passion for good beer and dedication to beer experimentation is really outstanding in a town with a great bunch of  home brewers. I’ve enjoyed every batch of Beau’s beer that I’ve tried so far, and this isn’t usually the case for homemade beer, which can suffer greatly due to sanitation issues.

Last night Beau brought a couple bottles of his homemade barley wine over for the Super Bowl. This is one of the few of his beers I hadn’t tried yet, and I was really looking forward to it. This one blew me away. Like I said, I haven’t had a bad Beau beer yet, but this bad boy was not only one of the best homemade beers I’ve ever had, it was one of the best barley wines I’ve ever had.

When I say it was like Nilla Wafers in a glass, I do not exaggerate. Sweet caramel and toffee with vanilla and tropical fruit are simplistic ways of describing a very complex and exciting beer. The yeast characteristic  in this beer seriously has a cookie-wafer taste to is, which really brings out the vanilla and some sweet dried pineapple and coconut.

So why am I writing about a beer that you will probably never have?

Because I think Beau, and the other homebrewers around here deserve a little notice once-in-a-while. It’s easy to focus on the craft beer industry and forget that if it weren’t for homebrewers, well, we wouldn’t have much of an industry.

So the next time your neighbor or homebrewing friend offers you a bottle of something they made in their garage, take it and pour it in a good beer glass. You never know, you just might be drinking the best thing you’ll ever drink.

And if you have an inclination to brew something amazing yourself, join the Zoo City Zymurgists. There are plenty of people like Beau out there who will be glad to help you get started.

Prost,

GG

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This article about barley wine from GQ magazine states that barley wines can be hard to find. Well, that’s only if you don’t live in Montana, where Big Sky Brewing Co., Bitterroot Brewing and Blackfoot River Brewing Co. all produce outstanding barley wines, just to name a few.

Still, I agree with the assessment that barley wines are a unique beer that should be sipped and enjoyed slowly. They’re a beer where you can really learn about fruit and nut flavors in beer, and they stand out from other beers mainly because of their malty sweetness tempered only by bold hops and their high alcohol content.

Besides the locals, you can find some good barley wines at the Good Food Store and at Worden’s Market.

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GG

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If you know someone in Helena or you feel like driving over, you might want to get a hold of them or leave now. This Blackfoot River Brewing Co. nectar will sell out fast. I’m hearing really good reports about it.

Prost,

GG

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