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Of Snow and Barley Wines - March 2003Remember that nasty winter storm that walloped the east coast of North America last month? The one that paralysed cities from the Carolinas to the Maritimes? Ya, that one. I missed it. Managed to skip the entire miserable mess. And I did so completely by accident. By sheer coincidence, I scheduled the better part of the third week of February for a trip to California, specifically to attend the annual barley wine tasting at San Francisco's Toronado beer bar, the fifteenth anniversary party of the Celebrator Beer News at the Great American Music Hall in that same city, a Belgian beer fest at the LA beer destination Lucky Baldwin's, and a barley wine tasting of my own at the Four Points LAX hotel in Los Angeles. As winter weather avoidance schemes go, it was brilliant. My west coast visit commenced Friday night at the Toronado, where I discovered owner Dave Keene, normally frantic on the eve of the barley wine fest, sitting calmly at the bar and relaxing with a glass of Unibroue 11. I figured the either disaster had struck and Dave was consoling himself in high-strength Québécois ale, or more unlikely, everything was in perfect order. Much to my surprise, it turned out to be the latter. Of course, one man's order is another's confusion. So I wasn't entirely surprised the next morning to find that judging for the barley wine fest was running approximately an hour behind schedule, a delay that almost doubled by the time I sat down with six other worthy judges to determine that year's winning barley wine. (And here, before Dave gets on my case for implying otherwise, I should note that he is not the one responsible for running the fest's judging portion and that, under the circumstances, those who did run it did a damn fine job.) We were given a half-dozen beers from which to pick the first, second and third place winners, and from the moment I sipped the first two in front of me, I had a pretty good idea where we were headed as a group. Beer One was a big, rounded beast with fruit and chocolate in the aroma and brilliant balance between notable hop, bitter chocolate, warming alcohol and a hint of wood in the body. Beer Two was an even bigger, hoppier, and most importantly, much woodier brew with strongly evident alcohol and lingering bitterness on the finish. It would be malt versus wood, I envisioned, and sure enough, when it came down to deciding first and second place some twenty-five or so minutes later, that is exactly how it boiled down. As much as I enjoy the properly proportioned use of cask aging in big beers, and Beer Two had a lovely mix of cask flavours which were is delicious harmony with the rest of the beer, I had to align myself with Beer One. It's complexity and depth of flavour were simply splendid, and the aging that I suspected that it had undergone was presented beautifully. Eventually we agreed on Beer One as our winner -- the 1996 Big Head Barley Wine from the now-defunct Barley & Hopps brewpub of San Mateo, California. For me, the roundness and depth of malt character was just more barley wine-ish than the oaky complexities of the runner-up, the 1998 Old Boilermmaker of Full Sail Brewing from Hood River, Oregon. The next day, I and 250,000 of my closest friends marched against the coming war in Iraq for a few hours before I bid them adieu and headed off to the Celebrator Beer News 15th Anniversary Party. And what a party it was, launched by a beautiful if ear-splitting performance by Portland Brewing's pipe and drum band and brought to a rocking close by the hugely impressive multi-piece house band from Anchor Brewing. Much congratulations to Tom Dalldorf, Jay Brooks and crew for putting on a great show. Next it was off to Los Angeles and a stop at the Pasadena beer bar, Lucky Baldwins, for owner David Farnworth's 4th Annual Belgian Beer Festival. While I do count myself among those who would argue that many if not most Belgian ales are better in the bottle than they are on tap, there was no denying Farnworth's remarkable achievement in amassing an astounding 50 or more draught Belgian beers, ranging from the predictable (Leffe Blonde) to the surprising (Cantillon Vigneronne) to the downright jaw-dropping (Abbaye des Rocs Grand Cru, De Dolle Brouwers Stille Nacht). During festival time, always the last two weeks of February, Lucky Baldwins has to be considered a must-visit for any beer aficionado in the area. For that matter, it pretty much qualifies as such any time of the year. I completed my west-coast swing by presenting eighteen barley wines in a tasting at the Four Points LAX, in what one participant characterized as "Toronado Lite." The painstakingly assembled selection had more than a few stand outs, including this month's Taste of the Month, but the acknowledged highlight for most tasters was the brilliant Anchor Old Foghorn from 1985. This was a textbook example of what fine ale will do when allowed to age, as it had evolved into something quite different from, if obviously related to, its original incarnation. The palate was thinner but more complex, the aroma drier with notes of tanned leather and dried fruit, and the overall effect was something quite elegant and dignified. Other impressive barley wines from the tasting included Old Scouters 1999 from Healdsberg, California's Bear Republic Brewing, Adam 2001 from Portland, Oregon's Hair of the Dog, and a last minute ringer, Old Gubbillygotch 2000 from the now-defunct Russian River Brewing Company. The next morning I packed my bags, hopped the shuttle to the airport and headed home to Toronto. The day after that the snow began to melt. Feature Articles
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