Bully For Barley Wine

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- With a temperatures hovering in the "freeze your face" range, now's a great time cut the chill and settle next to the fireplace with a new friend.

Barley wine is slowly growing in popularity among adults looking for something special to sip during the dark, cold winter months.

Barley wine is a bit of a conundrum. First of all, it's not really wine. It's beer. Barley wine is so named because, like its grape counterpart, barley wine usually offers a much higher alcohol content than most beers (9-13 percent compared to an average 4-6 percent). Think of it as wine made from grain instead of grape.

Partly because of its strength, barley wine exhibits other characteristics similar to wine. Its equivalent in the wine world might be port, which is also a sippin' beverage. Both feature some sweetness and a full-bodied complexity that often is enjoyed after dinner or with dessert.

Barley wine's theme song could be "Time Is On My Side." Most beer is best consumed fresh, but barley wine is suitable for cellaring or "laying down" -- just like a bottle of grape wine. Many are served at "cellar temperature," which isn't room temperature, but certainly isn't fresh out of the fridge, either -- similar to the temperature for serving red wine.

Among beer or wine, one thing that makes barley wine stand alone is its complex fruitiness, which comes from the production of higher alcohols known as esters. Esters give barley wine (and other strong beers) aroma and flavor full of subtle nuances that tend to come and go while sipping. Often the flavors can be reminiscent of prunes, plums, pears, raisins, figs, cherries, apricots, vanilla, caramel and even some spices.

Barley wine is a seasonal treat that many local and regional brewers create months (even years) in advance so it is ready to be served specifically this time of year. Many times, a brewer will age the beer in a wooden cask or barrel (pictured, above) to create more complexity in the aroma and palate.

Barley Wine From The Last Frontier

Alaskan brewers recently held a contest in which more than 20 barley wines from breweries across the country competed. The competition was a "blind" tasting -- beer aficionados and experts gathered to judge the submissions, but had no idea where any of the beers were from.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Alaskan breweries, which have colder weather for longer periods of time than much of the rest of the country, swept the competition. After all, Alaska's cold, short winter days are certainly more conducive to exploring barley wine territory.

Another tradition among barley wine brewers is to give it an interesting name. The winners at the Great Alaska Beer & Barley Wine Festival were no exception. Midnight Sun's Arctic Devil, Sleeping Lady's Old Gander, Alaskan's Big Nugget and Glacier BrewHouse's Old Woody were the winners.

But the real winners were the festival attendees, who could sample those special treats and more.