For the love of Barleywine

There’s nothing better than a party with good friends and good beer. For example: A group of barleywine loving friends gathered in Charleston last weekend for the 10th Annual Charley West Barley Fest.

This fest is a big private party event featuring bunches of different barleywines collected from across the country.

Collecting beer for the party

The barleywine fest is put together by a group of local beer enthusiasts who do a wonderful job with it. Throughout the year at their own expense, they collect barleywines, one-by-one, from breweries around the country. They then invite a large group of their friends over for a wonderful barleywine tasting party. It’s held in Charleston on the last weekend of January, when the cooler weather helps build one’s thirst for barleywine.

With all the barleywine bottles lined up on tables, sampling the beer is the funnest thing you can imagine. Sip by sip, comparing the variety of styles and treatments that brewers give their beer is a real education. Some are very sweet and dessert-ish, others are rich with spirits influences from having been aged in whiskey barrels. Still others are smooth and warming with notes of dried fruits, toffee, or chocolate. The range of flavors is delightful.

Winter Warmers

The primary barleywine style and all its variants have one thing in common: They are winter warmers. Their higher alcohol content gives a warming effect to the drinker. Considering this higher ABV, barleywines are excellent bottles for sharing with a group — like they did at this party.

Some of the bottles were several years old, which showed off barleywine’s penchant for mellowing as it ages.

Pairing food with the beer

The Barely Fest hosts always have a tasty spread of foods to enjoy with the beers. This year the featured dishes were meatballs in sauce, which were perfect for filling the large bread rolls they provided to make meatball subs. Plenty of side dishes and snacks were offered too.

Those meaty, full-flavored meatball subs held up well to the richness of the barleywines. It turned out to be a wonderful pairing. We have to say, we rarely get invited to a party any better than this one.

More info on the barleywine beer style

For additional information on the American Barley Wine beer style, check out this page from CraftBeer.com.

Party provides beer education

The concept of collecting beers of a certain style and then offering them up at a tasting party with your friends is a terrific idea. Themed events such as this are also an excellent way to learn more about the breadth and nuances of a beer style.

We live in an age of incredible beer variety from excellent craft brewers. If you’re a craft beer fan, consider getting a group of your friends together to collect some beers of a specific style, and then enjoy sharing them at a themed craft beer party.

Cheers.