Posted by Greg Clow in beer, beverages on December 11, 2007 at 5:27 pm

One of the biggest trends in craft brewing in the past few years, particularly in the United States, has been the development of so-called "extreme" beers: brews with huge flavours, high alcohol levels, and threatening names like Dark Lord and Arrogant Bastard and Mephistopheles. In a market where Bud and Blue are king, such aggressive ales seem like something completely new and exciting to most people, and many of them have gone well beyond the commonly held notions of what beer can or should be.

That being said, big and strong beers are not exactly a new thing. Belgian monks have long been brewing strong ales which undoubtedly helped to keep them warm during winter months. In Germany, bocks and even stronger doppelbocks were also brewed by monks to provide sustenance during periods of fasting. And in England, they've been brewing strong ales called barley wines for over 200 years.

Actually, that may not be completely accurate. There is some evidence that members of the British upper crust drank strong ales dubbed "barley wine" during periods in the 18th and 19th century when England was at war with France, and it would therefore have been unpatriotic to drink actual wine. But other beer historians say that the term was first used circa 1900 by Bass in reference to their No. 1 Ale, and more generic terms such as "strong ale" or "old ale" were used by breweries before that when describing the strongest ales in their line-up.

Regardless of when the name was first used, the fact remains that beers in the style that we now know as barley wine have been brewed in England since sometime in the 1700s, if not earlier, and continue to be brewed today, often as special winter beers. These hearty ales have alcohol levels of 8% or more (the traditional upper limit being 12%, although some modern interpretations push it even higher), and big, rich aromas and flavours due to the generous use of both malt and hops. What they don't have is a consistency of appearance, as, unlike many beer styles, there are no hard and fast rules regarding what type and roast of malt can be used. As a result, the colour of barley wines can range from a light golden hue right up to a deep, porter-like brown.

Here in Ontario, there have been very few barley wines produced during the modern craft brewing era. According to the extensive database at RateBeer, only seven examples have been brewed here in the last few years, of which three are from brewpubs, two were one-off casks brewed for special events, and one was from a now-defunct brewery.

Which means that Mill Street Barley Wine is the only relatively widely available version made in the province today. First brewed as a winter seasonal in 2004 and 2005 by original Mill Street brewmaster Michael Duggan, it was brought back this year by current brewmaster Joel Manning, and the brewery has made it available at their Distillery District brewpub and select LCBO outlets in a unique ceramic swing-top bottle (LCBO 70359 - $9.95/500 mL).

Out of the jug, it has a clear, deep golden-orange colour with a good sized white head. The aroma has the sweet maltiness expected from the style, with a strong caramel character, but also a lot of orange/citrus notes that I don't remember from the older versions. The flavour is very sweet off the top, with some spice and pepper in the middle, and strong orange peel in the finish along with a whisky-like heat that builds in intensity as the beer warms up.

While this 10% ale serves well as a winter warmer, it's a bit prickly around the edges, so full pints should be nursed, or a bottle shared and sipped with a friend. It may also be worth aging a bottle or two, as that generally mellows the rougher edges of beers like this, and maybe a year or two in the cellar will be long enough for some other Ontario breweries to come up with their own barley wines for comparison.