2008 Southern Tier BackBurner Barleywine - Tasting and Aging Notes
By jason on Mar 25, 2008 in Barleywines & Strong Ales, Reviews
Name: BackBurner
Brewer: Southern Tier
Style: Barleywine
Vintage: 2008
Bottled On: N/A
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.
Cellar Outlook: Barleywines usually do pretty well in the cellar, and this beer certainly has the malt presence to last.
Next Tasting: August 2008
Jason
Hey, nice review Jason. You really are lucky to have Southern Tier right in your area. I have really enjoyed some great craft beers from Southern Tier (tried many but so far only formally reviewed southern tier harvest ale)but it’s real tough finding Southern Tier around here in Western Pennsylvania.
Your review has inspired me to review Victory Brewing Co’s Old Horizontal Barleywine in the next few days hopefully. It’s been sitting in the fridge for couple months now but you got me thirsty for a barleywine now.
Love the site, great reviews and it’s a real nice info resource for beer and microbrew enthusiasts. Good info, design and worth the read. Cheers!
David James | Mar 27, 2008 | Reply