Pubcast 300! Big Barleywines

It’s a momentous occasion in this episode where we have reached our 300th podcast, and we have a momentous panel and some momentous beers to review. To help us celebrate, Ken McMullen from Hopvine invited us up to the brewery, and the host of cool dudes joining us are Steve “robo-judge” Kamp from Evil Horse (knackered after a hard days brewing), Chuck Fort and TJ Bachorz from Church Street, Travis Beard from Ugly Trucking who is later joined by his wife Carol-Anne, and on the consumer side, Tom Ryan, John Karwoski, The Yankee, and of course me, The Brit Phil Clark.

Every year in the winter we get together a collection of barleywines, those higher alcohol winter warmers, and we fight off the cold weather with some samples. This year we have a six-pack of Illinois barleywines, but we start off the session with one from Ommegang, just as a teaser to the final series of Game of Thrones coming in April 2019.

Once we get through the first brew and we start to loosen up a little, the conversation flies and the fun ensues! It’s a ‘raw’ recording but it’s a great evening with brewers and friends…so, here’s to the next 300 shows. CHEERS!

Brews Reviewed:

Ommegang Brewery, Royal Reserve Collection, Hand of the Queen, Barleywine Ale, 11% ABV
The Forge, De Kalb, Long Haul Collection, Heavy Hitter, American Barleywine, 10.2% ABV
Revolution Brewing, Straight Jacket, unknown year, barrel-aged Barleywine, 13.1% ABV
Brickstone Brewing, 2017 After World, barrel-aged British barleywine, 14.2% ABV
Solemn Oath, Naperville, Old Order Cellar Club #9,
Evil Horse Brewing, Crete, Grampa Z’ Big A$$ English Barleywine, 11% ABV