Grizzly Growler

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 [...]

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

I’ve said this every year since I started saying things about beer. Beer is a far better choice for your Thanksgiving meal than wine. There are myriad reasons why, but I won’t go over them here. Suffice it to say that your craft-beer selection for T-Day is bigger than ever, and the possibilities for amazing [...]

And it has my name on it. Well, not really. It has the Grizzly Growler name on it, but since I try to fill those rather tremendous shoes by posting under that name, I’ll count it. So I was finally able to stop into Bitterroot Brewing to try some samples of all their current Brewer’s [...]

I love that my friends love to pull something new and unique out of their cellars when I come over for a visit. For one, it helps expand my beer horizons, and it helps me to have a conversation about the beer I try for this blog. A one-sided conversation, which I often have with [...]

There is a new barley wine on tap at Bitter Root Brewery. I haven’t had one from them yet, but knowing how brewer Paul Thomas makes his beer, it’s bound to be good. And if this inversion doesn’t lift soon, I’m going to start looking for a place to live in Hamilton, which means I [...]

I know I make a big deal out of hard-to-find Belgian beers, but there are a few American craft brews popping up in this category as of late. Deschute’s The Abyss is one of them, but the king of hard-to-find beers might just be Alaskan Brewing Co.’s Barley Wine Ale. ‘ One of the most [...]

Olde Blue Hair Barley Wine is on tap at Big Sky Brewing Co., according to the brewery’s latest newsletter. That means that it is barley wine time again. Perhaps one of my favorite seasonal beers, barley wine is about as good as it gets as an aperitif on turkey day or for something to poor [...]

Like a fruitcake in a bottle and nearly that chewy, Dogfish Head’s Olde School barley wine is nothing to be toyed with. As you’ll read in other reviews, this beer is bigger than big, and to the uninitiated, it could turn you off of the style. But given the chance to age, which I have [...]

Barley wine always was this refined beverage that came in tiny bottles like Rogue’s Old Crustacean used to, and which you consumed in a sherry glass or something similar. Apparently that is not the case anymore as I found out while perusing the beer selection at the Good Food Store last week. Turns out Sierra [...]