Barleywine American vs English

[3PegBrew]

Pardon me. I wanted to get some opinions on the different styles. I am not a big Barleywine fan because I have not sampled many.

I would assume the yeast and hops are the big difference?

 

[weirdboy]

Those are the main things. English Barleywine will generally be sweeter in the balance, be much less hoppy as well as using UK hops, and have much more prominent fruity esters than an American Barleywine.

 

[3PegBrew]

In other words the american style will be heavy in hops and use a neutral yeast like American Ale Wyeast. I would think you would have a hard hit on the bitter and a hard it on aroma with a nice malt flavor undertone?

 

[weirdboy]

Yeah. Have you tried any commercial examples?

I really like Great Divide Old Ruffian, but don't know if you can get it where you are. Sierra Nevada Bigfoot is sorta the canonical example.


The malt presence is definitely there...very chewy in the body, and should have a pretty rich complexity of malt flavors to back up the hops.

 

[3PegBrew]

I will check it out. Thanks. A friend wanted an American Barleywine and I couldnt remember which style had the heavy hop aroma and low esters.

 

[BradleyBrew]

Yeah, English Barley wine's are much more balanced. American Barley wine's are much more geared towards the big AA American hops. English Barley wine's by nature will be slightly more "fruity" because of the English yeast strains traditionally used. So, English = good balance between the malt & hops. The American version will be much more bitter with the malt playing a secondary role.

 

[EvoV98]

I was really thinking about brewing a barley wine, until sierra nevada bigfoot ale wa mentioned. I had that beer when I was young and willing to drink anything and that made me gag. unless English style is MUCH sweeter now I know not to make it.

 

[acidrain23]

I'm normally not a big barleywine fan, but I had a good one the other day- Shipyard Barleywine. That one was fantastic. Very complex, layers of dark malts, carmel, vanilla, even marshmallow. It had a good amount of hops to balance, but it didn't fight with the intense malty goodness. I would try to clone that one if I was going to do a barleywine.

 

[Homercidal]

I was really thinking about brewing a barley wine, until sierra nevada bigfoot ale wa mentioned. I had that beer when I was young and willing to drink anything and that made me gag. unless English style is MUCH sweeter now I know not to make it.

That beer is meant to be drank after a bit of aging.

That said, I'd probably still like it young, personally.

I suggest trying a Big foot that is 1-2 years old. The hops will have faded quite a bit. But it's still a Barleywine from a brewery who LOVES to add whole hops!