Today is the day of the February Session (round 12 if you’re keeping track at home) – I made it one of my (blogging) New Year’s Resolutions to be better about taking part in The Session this year so, although I missed out on January, I’m going to try and do my part from here on out. Since I’ve never participated before, I’ll give you a run-down of what exactly The Session is:
“The Session, a.k.a. Beer Blogging Friday, is an opportunity once a month for beer bloggers from around the world to get together and write from their own unique perspective on a single topic. Each month, a different beer blogger hosts the Session, chooses a topic and creates a round-up listing all of the participants, along with a short pithy critique of each entry… The idea for the Sessions began with fellow beer writer Stan Hieronymus, who noticed similar group endeavors in other blogospheres and suggested those of us in the beer world create our own project.”
This month’s topic is Barleywine (or Barley Wine, whichever you prefer), as chosen and hosted by Jon at The Brew Site.
Unfortunately (for me) this is a style I don’t yet have too, too much experience with — but I hope that changes sooner rather than later, and I’m sure the rest of The Session posts will help motivate me — so I’m going to cheat a wee-bit (I know, great way to start off my Session participation, eh?) and re-post a past review I did of the Smuttynose Barleywine-style Ale from the Smuttynose Brewery in Portsmouth, NH:
This is one of the tastiest Barleywines I’ve had (again, there haven’t been many); it features a nice, modest 7% ABV — unusually tame for a Barleywine — so you can have plenty. There is a gorgeous off-white pillowing thick head when poured, which quickly disappears. There are very strong fruit esters with a touch of caramelizing, grain and a pinch of hop on the nose. A tad on the sweet side, the mouthfeel — which is both creamy and chewy — boats a fantastic cocktail of esters (pear & date, maybe? I’m not great at differentiating the flavors) and citrusy hop flavours which end with a dry, grain aftertaste. With an overall rating of B+, plenty of BAers agree that this is a truly fantastic brew.
[tags]Barleywine, beer, The Session, Beer Blog[/tags]
