Bottled beer

Wine not?

Super Deluxe No. 1 Sparkling Barley Wine

Full-bodied, dark red-brown barley wines can make great seasonal treats

Beer traditionalists who

bristle at the notion of Black IPA should ponder the term ‘barley wine’, another style name that may be selfcontradictory, but still gives the drinker a reasonable idea of what to expect. It originates in the oncecommon practice of brewing beers strong and hoppy enough to mature in cellars for long periods. By the late 19th century, it was used both to reflect the strength and borrow the upmarket cachet of wine. Though it hasn’t attracted quite as much interest among the younger generation of UK craft brewers as other strong heritage styles like imperial stout, there are some fine examples that make perfect seasonal treats.

One of the earliest

references to the commercial style is a mention of the “matchless home-brewed barley wine” from the White Lion, Digbeth, in 1870, so I was delighted to discover

Mr. Wood Four Roses

(10.5 per cent ABV) from generation of US craft brewers. A dosing with Centennial yields the expected piny aroma alongside rose and citrus, while a punchy palate has a raisin-biscuit malt sweetness lifted by citrus zest, mint and pepper, with a warming bitter grapefruit finish. The brewery near Wokingham was founded by Andy Parker, sometime home-brewing contributor to BEER, in 2015.

Dig Brew, founded in 2017 less than a mile from the now-closed pub. Aged 18 months in a bourbon barrel, this deep amber beer has candied fruit, glacé cherries and tantalising wood vanillins, a restrained bourbon note balanced by tartness and a long, soothing finish. It arguably doesn’t need its extra sweetness from added lactose, but it’s still a luscious and complex bottleful.

Attic Brew Co, not

far away in Stirchley, Birmingham, contributes the strongest entrant in this

selection. Super Deluxe

No. 1 Sparkling Barley Alan Thomson’s Old

Wine at a hefty 13.5 per cent has an unsurprisingly warm and boozy palate, but uses it as a platform for a constantly evolving blend of flavours, making suggestions of salted caramel, figs, dark toffee, sherry, orange rind, chewy brown toast and sappy oak, with mellowed earthy hops gripping the long finish. This magnificent mid-brown beer will stand a few years of bottle ageing and also boasts a classy retro-style label. Chimneys brewery, founded in 1995 in

Market Weston, Suffolk, closed in 2019, but some of its beers have since resurfaced as collaborations. It’s best known for strong stout Good King Henry, but also lends its

name to Artefact

Old Chimneys Barley Wine

(9.5 per cent),

One of my all-time

favourites remains awardwinning Chiltern’s Bodgers (8.5 per cent) from what’s now Buckinghamshire’s oldest independent brewery, opened near Aylesbury in 1980. This hazy amber beer has a very fruity orange jelly aroma, layers of sweet toffee malt, with green olive, pear and tropical fruit hints on a richly textured palate, and earthy hops and orange marmalade on a lingering finish. Big, but immaculately balanced, it’s surely the contemporary benchmark of the style.

Elusive Sunset City

American Barleywine (9 per cent) recalls interpretations of the style from the first now brewed in Bury St Edmunds. The aroma really does have a hint of wine, alongside chocolate, raisins and wood, with sherry and a suggestion of coconut emerging from its deeply nutty flavours. It finishes with a flourish of marzipan and spice.

Des de Moor is one of the country’s leading writers on bottled beer, and author of The CAMRA Guide to London’s Best Beer, Pubs & Bars. Follow him at @desdemoor and read more of his reviews at desdemoor.co.uk