Name: BackBurner

Brewer: Southern Tier

Style: Barleywine

Vintage: 2008

Cellared On: February 20th, 2008

Original Tasting: March 12th, 2008

Even though my main mission on this site is obviously aging and cellaring beers, some of you may have noticed my secondary mission - exploring the fantastic beers local to me here in Upstate NY. I consider myself incredibly lucky to be surrounded by so many high-quality breweries. Given all that, it’s a bit surprising that I haven’t had a Southern Tier brew on here yet. Well no time like the present - here’s Southern Tier’s first release of 2008 - the BackBurner barleywine.

BackBurner is a dark brown ale tinting a bit towards red. Right away you’ll find yourself enjoying the unique hop smell of this brew. It’s very complex, citrusy and spicy - you almost don’t notice the roasted malt smells at all. Carbonation is at a typical level for a barleywine, very low with practically no head at all.

As cool as the hops smells were, the first thing I noticed when tasting this beer was the huge malt flavor. It just envelopes your mouth was roasted malt goodness. It’s not an overly sweet malt like many barleywines, but there is a touch of caramel sweetness in there. That’s not to say the hops aren’t making themselves known - they’re just playing a much more complementary role then I was expecting. The hop presence really comes out on the medium-dry finish, with the bitterness really building as you drink on. A bit of heat from the alcohol joins in at the end as the brew wraps up.

Overall, just a really enjoyable first tasting from another great NY brewery.

Six Month Tasting: October 5th, 2008

This brew was very much the same as before - it’s still a big malty bomb. Thick, rich, with caramel sweetness - malty goodness abounds. The pruney notes were just leaping out at me. Hops are still stuck in their backup role, but they’re still tasty. There’s a touch of warming alcohol on the finish, which is rich and sweet.

I tried this out on one of my Monday night tastings. Both the Mikes commented on the high drinkability and smoothness of this beer.

Cellar Outlook: Barleywines usually do pretty well in the cellar, and this beer certainly has the malt presence to last.

Six Month Outlook: I’m not sure where we’re going here. The hops will continue to pull back for sure, but will that really be an improvement?

Next Tasting: March 2009

Jason

jason@brewbasement.com

www.brewbasement.com