Pic(k) of the Week: Harvest Ale Vintage 2000 (21 years later)

This happened.

On 29 January 2021, I tasted an aged bottle of J.W. Lees & Co. Harvest Ale (11.5% alcohol barleywine ¹), that the Middleton, England-brewery had brewed and bottled twenty-one years earlier, in Y2K. And that had resided in my 'cellar' since.

Though J.W. Lees Brewery of Middleton, England, has been crafting quality beer since 1876, it wasn't until 1986 that it released its delectable sipper into the world. Brewed with the choicest [me: ugh] Maris Otter malt [me: sublime] and East Kent Goldings hops [Ibid.] , it has the legs to go the distance. The brewery uses a house-developed yeast strain to ferment the brew in original open copper-lined vessels.

— Vintage Beer (Patrick Dawson): Storey Publishing, 2014.

"But," the old brewmaster asked, "How did the beer TASTE?"

Gently prying the crown cap, I heard a faint fizz. (Listen to your beer.) Considering the Harvest Ale's venerable age, its carbonic condition ² and head retention were remarkably good. In fact, they were that of a 'fresh' beer. Likewise the clarity —just see-through deep garnet color— was good.

In the beer's aroma, I sniffed chocolate and dark berries. Taking a sip, I tasted the same but with secondary flavors of oloroso sherry and ruby port. Taking a gulp, I was drinking a semi-sweet beer with an unctuous finish (in a good way). Any burn from its alcoholic strength (11.5%) had been mellowed by two-decades-and-one-year of time.

I might have enjoyed a flourless chocolate dessert (or a fine Stilton cheese) as an accompaniment but, given such a divine taste of liquid history, I enjoyed it per ipsum. Alas, the bottle contained only 275 milliliters (9.3 U.S. fluid ounces) of beer. Waiting so long for pleasure so brief.

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2002 Old Foghorn (in 2020)

San Francisco's celebrated Old Foghorn brand has been virtually handmade by the brewers of Anchor Steam Beer, in one of the world's smallest and most traditional breweries, since 1975. Our barleywine style ale, the first of its kind in modern times in the United States, has a luscious depth of flavor that makes it ideal for sipping after dinner. It is made with fermenting yeast, fresh, whole hops, and 'first wort,' the richest runnings of a thick, all-malt mash. Old Foghorn is 'dry hopped' in the classic ale tradition and aged in our cellars until it attains the perfect balance of malty sweetness, estery fruitiness, and exquisite hop character for which it is known throughout the world.

— neck label

Old Foghorn Barleywine Style Ale
(~ 8% alcohol-by-volume)
— Anchor Brewing (San Francisco, California).

• Brewed and bottled —in 'nip' bottles (7.1 fluid ounces = 210 ml)— in 2002.
• Tasted on 15 January 2020.

Eighteen years on, this vintage Old Foghorn was as flat as a pancake but bright as a whistle. Deep auburn, almost brown, in hue. Dry but without bitterness or unctuousness. It was probably past its prime —hops absent and some wet cardboard flavor present— but not unenjoyable, with aromas and flavors of sherry, plums, and model airplane glue(!), along with some caramel, dark chocolate, and toffee.

Anchor Brewing brewed this bottle when the brewery was still the grandaddy of independents. (It's now owned by Japanese conglomerate, Sapporo.)

Drinking it was like drinking 'craft' beer history but with a buzz. All that was missing was a chunk of Maytag Blue cheese.

A series of occasional reviews of beer (and wine and spirits).
No scores; only descriptions.

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