In December, right before Christmas, I went to Sam’s Quick Mart in Durham to pick up some of my favorite beers for the holidays. I came across the Olde School Barleywine from Dogfish Head in Vermont. I have had some barleywine from other breweries in the past, and did not get too excited about what I tried.

On Christmas Day, we had some friends and family over, and Laura cooked this wonderful goose, which was accompanied by a very hearty, yummy Zinfandel. after the meal, I opened a bottle of the Olde School, but then it was also time for desert. So I ended up with a glass of barleywine and a slice of peppermint pie (Julia’s request for desert). I was quite amazed that the Olde School barleywine and the peppermint pie actually went together just fine.

The Olde School is one hell of a beer! It’s more like a nice, old port, and it demands attention. At 15 percent Alc. Vol., this is not a beer you chug from the bottle at a party. Pour it into a tulip glass, (I had it in a red wine glass) and let it warm a bit. It quite sweet, but it has a lot more character than any barleywine I have had. It’s intense, but the alcohol is not overpowering. Clearly, this is not everyone’s thing, but I think this makes a fine desert drink.

Prost!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 9th, 2007 at 10:08 pm and is filed under flavors. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.