The Spirit World

I love being a beer writer (and beer podcaster). Not only do I have an excuse (who needs one?) to drink all kinds of different beer, but I find out the most interesting things while doing the research for these articles.

This week’s subject is mixing or blending lighter (alcohol, not necessarily colored) beers with barley wine. The first question I need to answer is “what is a barely wine?” since I have already covered that for The Spirit World in my “Style of the Month” series I suggest you go back and refresh your memory.

Additionally, I’m going to refer you an excellent and informative article that I found on Realbeer.com by Adrian Tierney-Jones on barley wines. The article is a few years old and is focused on mainly English barley wines, but I learned two things from that article that I hadn’t known before: (1) barely wine is sometimes called Stingo, and (2) small bottles are called nips.

Now onto the subject of the Brewsday: blending barley wine with other beer. Why would you want to do such a thing?

While most hard-core beer geeks think it’s a mortal sin to put anything into a perfectly good beer, I believe that Judy Ashworth, legendary beer blending pioneer who served up some daring combinations at her Lyons Brewery Depot in Dublin, California, had some special insight into the universe of possible flavors that can be achieved through careful blending. Lambic and whiskey producers know the importance of blending. The beer consumer should also understand the principles of blending. According to Ashworth: “You just have to be very careful that you respect the two beers and that their flavors enhance one another.” [quoted from “Beer Cocktails” at All About Beer]

Judy Ashworth had a whole list of barely wine blends she served at her pub (see Charley Papazian’s book Microbrewed Adventures and “Beer Cocktails” at All About Beer):

“A Foggy Night in the Sierras” - a combination of Anchor’s Old Foghorn and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.

“Lost in the Orchard Again” - Old Foghorn and Pyramid Apricot Ale

“Drunken Turkey” - Old Foghorn and Cranberry Ale from San Andreas Brewing in Hollister, California

“The Ultimate Hop Head Ale” - Sierra Nevada Bigfoot with Sierra Nevada Celebration

“Paul Revere’s Last Ride” or “Foggerty” - Old Foghorn (1/4) and Liberty Ale (3/4)

“Anchor’s Aweigh” - a splash of Old Foghorn on top of a pint of Anchor Wheat

During the next month we are going to be doing a lot of beer blending together, so grab some barely wines and some other beers and let’s mix it up and see what we get.