Style: Barley Wine
ABV: 10%
Origin: Mar del Plata, Argentina

Download the Newsletter

Produced by the respected Antares Brewery in Mar del Plata, Argentina – the beautiful seaside resort city approximately 4 hours south of Buenos Aires – this is a big and complex beer, to be sure. When I tasted a sample bottle with Michael Jackson in June of this year, we were surrounded by some highly experienced and esteemed Belgian beer professionals. They were, of course, expecting very little in terms of quality from any South American brew being shared by a North American while sitting at an Antwerp beer festival that was featuring the likes of Orval, Malheur, St. Bernardus, and Liefman’s. It was with great relief that I heard Michael, after his first sip, tell them that they needed to take a minute and pay attention to this beer, because it had an “awful lot going on.”

Giving it his usual careful attention and respectfully slow analysis, he noted its lovely rich copper color, and generous floral nose. He found the flavors to be syrupy, floral, and fruity, with a finish that just kept going. He was impressed at how easily it carried its 10% alcohol, and called it a very nice beer – one that he thought should proudly be a club feature. It was then that the conversation turned to the topic of how one actually defines a barley wine.

And that, like so many subjects of old world brew styles and categories, was one that Michael understood as well as anyone. Following here is an excerpt from a 1998 article that he wrote called "Heavy gravity, man," and it captures the historical essence of our exchange.

I pray that the old-established beer-style Barley Wine survives. The designation does seem to be vanishing from many brewers’ ranges, perhaps the victim of its own quaintness.

Similar brews, sometimes darker and more chocolaty, often less strong, and frequently on draught, are known as Winter Warmers or Old Ales (Britain has no fewer than 120 of the latter). On other occasions, the term “Strong Ale” is thought to suffice, particularly in the case of paler, drier brews.

The terms overlap. Within the broad selection of strongish winter brews, a barley wine is usually at the upper end of the scale, between 6.0 and 12.0 per cent alcohol by volume, or even slightly more. Traditionally, it came in small, nip bottles as though to protect the drinker from excess. In the days before the strengths of beers appeared on labels, barley wine was the stuff of myth and legend. In those innocent times, the jazz musicians of my provincial youth were addicted to nothing more sinister. The ratio of potency to volume removed the risk of needing a loo mid-solo.

The origins of the designation barley wine are not certain. The notion of producing a beer to match “foreign wines” was mentioned in Britain as early as 1768, and the term seems to date from the early 1800’s. My guess is that it especially implied a beer with a strength approaching that of a wine, though it could also suggest a vinous flavor. Color can vary from a Sauternes-like gold to claret or Burgundy.

Even if the palest of malts are used, the density of grain required to produce a strong brew can make for a full color. This same density can require a longer boil in the brew-kettle, and that also makes for some caramelization. Brewers producing a barley wine often seek to balance this sweetness with a hefty dosage of hops. The result can be a complex of powerful flavors.

Even a wine yeast finds it hard to create alcohol levels of much more than 12-14 per cent and beer cultures are less muscular. The problem is that the yeasts get drunk on their own alcohol, and go to sleep. The traditional means of awakening the yeasts was to roll the barrels round the brewery yard once a week. Alternatives are to “rouse” the brew in the fermentation vessel with a paddle, or pump oxygen through it.

When the yeast is thus encouraged to return to work, it begins to create flavors that are fruitier and winier than in a conventional beer. Some barley wines have as long as three months’ fermentation and maturation at the brewery.

A conventional beer, once put into a cask, will last only a few weeks - and only days after it has been tapped - before souring. A barley wine, protected by its great strength, will not only survive, but gain in complexity, in an unbroached cask. Its malt sugars will further ferment, and its flavors meld, while’ its richness and sweetness may even be better balanced by a hint of acidity.

We hope you like this beer as much as we do, and as much as Michael did just 5 months ago. We are proud to offer it as a beer to enjoy and share with family and friends during the holiday months. Perhaps it will spark interesting conversations at your table about history, vanishing trends, or your own provincial youth.

Cheers for now,

Keith Johnsen, Rare Beer Club Director