Brooklyn Brewing - one of the venerable craft-brewers in the
Mid-Atlantic states tends to make excellent, traditional beers.
Available throughout New England in bottles and on tap.
Ok, what is it that makes brewers attempt a barleywine if they're just not ready to commit to the time and effort required to do it right? Barleywines are extremely malty, very heavy and very strong ales that take up to 11 months to ferment properly. The resulting beer usually pushes 11-13% abv... and since it is so strong and rich, if it is bottled, it is placed in 7-9oz bottles.
Now, I love barleywines... but 12oz of a real barleywine can set anyone over the edge. So, when the bartender at d.b.a. in the East Village (NYC) extracted a 12 oz bottle of the Monster Ale, I figured that either I would be disappointed because it would be too much of a good thing or the brewers would have stopped the fermentation so the alcohol level wouldn't be too high so you could finish a full 12oz bottle. It was the latter.
After I stopped complaining that this wasn't a barleywine, but simply a strong ale, I started to actually enjoy this deep brown ale.
The beer has a pleasant citrus aroma when brought to the nose, and a nice syrupy consistency when sampled where the citrus aroma turned into a citrus aftertaste which gave the illusion of a crisp finish. Overall, it was a nice strong ale... nothing fantastic, but certainly drinkable and if I was in the mood for a strong ale, I would consider it.
Ich Bin Brooklyner! Possibly Brooklyn's finest beer, Brooklyner Weisse is a hefeweisen that I would put up against any of the German Weisse beers.
Served in a proper .5 liter glass, the Brooklyner Weisse is an appropriately hazy gold color and supports a loose off-white head that quickly dissolves. The nose is a fantastic banana/exotic scent which develops into a fantastic cinnamony-banana flavor that lingers in your mouth for what feels like an eternity. This sort of flavor development shows that the brewer knows his yeasts well... as almost all of this taste is contributed by the fermentation process.
A definite winner and a beer to search out if you have the
opportunity to sample it.
(Avery Glasser)