Most people’s first step to a crisis, before washing their hands hands, is to raid the local grocery stores for perishable staples such as milk, bread, and toilet paper. Not Sean Jackson. The Parkway Tavern beer curator also went straight to breweries’ cellars. He filled every inch of his Tacoma beer bar with his favorite staple, barleywine, preparing for his annual John O’Gara Barley Wine Fest, culminating with the notorious Barley Wine Brunch. Unfortunately, as if the virus decimating your 401k and threatening your upcoming cruise wasn’t bad enough, now it’s coming for your beer. The Parkway Tavern has, obviously, canceled its annual ode to barleywine, including today’s Barley Wine Brunch. No Sean Jackson barleywine action. No Chef Hudson Slater food pans of goodness. No Barleywine Revue live bluegrass and comedy show. It’s a sad day, indeed. But, if you still want to enjoy the high-octane elixir of butterscotch, caramelized sugar, and dark fruits notes, and keep your date with a 2 p.m. nap/pass out, Peaks & Pints offers a barleywine bottle and can to-go beer flight that we call Peaks and Pints Pilot Program: Barleywine On The Fly. We suggest re-enacting the whole Parkway Barley Wine experience by adding our breakfast takeout sandwiches, streaming bluegrass music, and then texting Jackson that you got home safe, again. Be well!
Peaks and Pints Pilot Program: Barleywine On The Fly
Hair of the Dog Maja
10.8% ABV
“The chance to brew with long time idol Alan Sprints of Hair of The Dog is something we will cherish for the rest of our lives,” states Omnipollo on their website. Indeed, Sweden’s famous brewery brewed this barleywine at Sprints’ Portland brewery, adding maple syrup, lactose sugar and vanilla beans. It hits the nose with peaches “and pleasant memories of the past,” according to Sprints. “In the mouth, pineapple mixes with marshmallow, ample and whimsy. Produced with the help and guidance of our good friends at Omnipollo to provide a truly unique drinking experience.” Maja should have been named “Hug.”
Old Schoolhouse Barley Wine Style Ale
12% ABV
Casey and Laura Ruud purchased the floundering Winthrop brewery in 2008, changed the name to Old Schoolhouse Brewery, cleaned it up, and quickly turned it into an award-winning gem of a brewpub. Nate and Jake Young, and their buddy Troy Anderson — longtime fans of the brewery — bought it with the intent of keeping it awesome. Part of their Brewer’s Reserve Series, their Barley Wine Style Ale offers layers of caramel and toffee, rich in malt flavor with plenty of hops and alcohol. Designed for long-term storage to allow in-bottle seasoning.
Pelican Mother of All Storms
14% ABV, 40 IBU
Mother of All Storms was originally released back in 2008 under the name “The Perfect Storm” but due to a copyright issue they changed the name to Mother of All Storms in 2010. Oh, mother, either way it’s a fitting name for Pelican Brewing‘s Kentucky bourbon barrel-aged beast. The 14 percent ABV English-style barleywine surges with Golden Promise, Munich, Melanoidin and Caramel malts as well as Magnum, Glacier and Mount Hood hops. The beer then spends several months aging in Kentucky bourbon barrels before being bottled and kegged. The Storm opens with a straight on bourbon slapped in the face before hints of dark fruits, toffee and oak start to appear. The bourbon returns on the tongue before other flavors begin to emerge: tawny port, pie cherries, leather, cacao nibs, rich malt, and velvet-y caramel with toasty coffee edges. Did we mention a fair amount of bourbon?
Sierra Nevada Bigfoot
9.6% ABV, 96 IBU
Sierra Nevada Brewing’s cult classic was first brewed in 1983 and is considered to be one the best American barleywines being brewed today. Wildly hoppy — Chinook as bittering hops and Cascade, Centennial and Chinook for finishing hops — and balanced by a fierce malt backbone, this brew will age gracefully for years and years — much like the story behind that blurry photo you took that one time of something that could maybe probably be Bigfoot.
