March 30, 2000 -- The barley wine tasting by the light of the full moon continues. (For part I, please see http://www.worldofbeer.com/ktt/bwi.html.) To recap, the tasters are: Kevin Fair of the Real Beer Page, Brian Morin, executive chef for Prime Restaurants, Ron Keefe, owner and brewer at Toronto's Granite Brewery brewpub, and myself.

We get into some barley wine classics this half of the tasting, with the three pairings being as follows: Anchor Brewing's Old Foghorn (vintage 1998) from San Francisco, California and Bigfoot from Chico, California's Sierra Nevada Brewing; Millennium Ale from the Howe Sound Inn and Brewing Company of Squamish, British Columbia and Old Boardhead from Full Sail Brewing of Hood River, Oregon; and Old Crustacean (vintage 1998) from Rogue Ales of Newport, Oregon and Final Absolution from Dragonmead Brewing of Warren, Michigan.

As might be expected by barley wine aficionados, both the 8.7% (all alcohols listed by volume) Old Foghorn and the 9.6% Bigfoot set the tasters back on their heels, being old favourites to some (including myself) and revelations to others. The more British-style Foghorn scored particularly well with its full, rich, British-style character and remarkable chocolaty, nutty complexity. Bigfoot was also received with enthusiasm for its hoppy, nutty aroma, well-hopped but also well-balanced body and warmingly bitter and alcoholic finish. These two were rated by all present as a very hard act to follow.

The final duo of the night featured the guest beer brought by Ron Keefe, the 10% Dragonmead Final Absolution, which had in turn been given to him by a customer a couple of weeks earlier. I saved it for the end because I had no idea what to expect from it and because it came in such a massive (64oz.) bottle. But as it turned out, pairing it with the 11.3% Old Crustacean was not such a good idea.

Anyone familiar with Old Crusty, as the Crustacean is affectionately known, will be likewise familiar with its massive hoppiness. It is my opinion that this can only be tamed with a few years of rest, and since our sample was only two years old, not much taming had occurred. Thus, the hops hit with the first taste and kept on coming, although complex earthy, black cherry and nut flavours lurked in the background. After such a taste, the fruity, malty Final Absolution could not hope to compete, although a second sampling the next day showed a pleasant, sweetish, fruity ale.

A later search on the web revealed that the Dragonmead brewery bills their Final Absolution as a Belgian tripel, which is a lot of styles and at least one country away from a barley wine! This not only explains why it tasted quite light beside the rest of the barley wines that night, as would have even the classic tripel from Westmalle, but also makes sense of the fact that it didn't taste terribly barley wine-ish the next day, either.

Still, just as the full moon and Vernal Equinox had seemed to make it a fitting night for a barley wine tasting, so too did it strike me as fitting that we ended the night with a Final Absolution.

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