Try?
So there I was
the other day, sitting at the
Brick Store Pub in beautiful downtown Decatur, Georgia, sipping a pint
of beer. Decatur, after all, is a really great place to visit, because it
has two major beer attractions, the other being Twain’s brewpub, where you
can drink some really wonderful hand crafted beers, shoot some pool, and eat
some really tasty wings. Then you can head to the Brick Store just a few
blocks away, as I did, for round two. And no worries about getting home: the
square sits right on top of a MARTA station.
Back to the Brick Store. One of the things I like about this place and beer bars like it is the fact that they scour high and low to find rare and interesting beers that beer enthusiasts such as me would otherwise never find. And that, my friends, is what I was sipping when this little treatise began: a pint of Uinta's Anniversary Barley Wine from Utah’s Uintas Brewing Company.
I had asked the bartender what the featured beers, otherwise know as the mystery beers, were. One of them, he said, was a barleywine from, of all places, Utah. Utah? Yes, Utah. You may wonder why that surprises. Mainly it’s because Utah is not especially know for its beers, and the only Utah beer I could recollect drinking at the time was Wasatch. Utah is famous for its 3.2% alcohol limit on beer, but that doesn’t mean you can’t brew a strong beer in Utah. You just have to sell it in a bar, pub, or liquor store if you do. And unless times have changed, you have to be a “club member” to get into a bar to boot.
Uinta is located in Salt Lake City and produces an extensive line of beers for local consumption and export out of Utah. The environmentally conscious will be interested to know that the entire facility operates on wind power, and the company takes steps to minimize the waste it produces.
Anniversary Barley Wine, currently on it’s 14th incarnation, has been released once a year each year since the company’s 5th anniversary. This is a strong brew indeed at 9.8% alcohol by volume, and it’s a good one to age for a few years as it will mature and change.
My pint of Uinta Anniversary Barley Wine arrived a dark reddish brown in color with a light, creamy head formation and a heady nose of sweet caramel malt. A sip revealed a truly formidable brew of impressive body, thick and rich with dark sweet malt. Chewy caramel, fresh bread, and a hint of raisin come right to the fore, while underneath it all a decidedly orange citrus aroma slowly rises to the top. In the finish, that citric character becomes slightly bitter, although nowhere near as much as in other American examples of the style like Sierra Nevada’s Bigfoot .
I was very impressed, and remarked that the more I drank of this little beauty the more I liked it. If you’re in Utah, or if Utah comes to you, you really should try it.
Back to the Brick Store. One of the things I like about this place and beer bars like it is the fact that they scour high and low to find rare and interesting beers that beer enthusiasts such as me would otherwise never find. And that, my friends, is what I was sipping when this little treatise began: a pint of Uinta's Anniversary Barley Wine from Utah’s Uintas Brewing Company.
I had asked the bartender what the featured beers, otherwise know as the mystery beers, were. One of them, he said, was a barleywine from, of all places, Utah. Utah? Yes, Utah. You may wonder why that surprises. Mainly it’s because Utah is not especially know for its beers, and the only Utah beer I could recollect drinking at the time was Wasatch. Utah is famous for its 3.2% alcohol limit on beer, but that doesn’t mean you can’t brew a strong beer in Utah. You just have to sell it in a bar, pub, or liquor store if you do. And unless times have changed, you have to be a “club member” to get into a bar to boot.
Uinta is located in Salt Lake City and produces an extensive line of beers for local consumption and export out of Utah. The environmentally conscious will be interested to know that the entire facility operates on wind power, and the company takes steps to minimize the waste it produces.
Anniversary Barley Wine, currently on it’s 14th incarnation, has been released once a year each year since the company’s 5th anniversary. This is a strong brew indeed at 9.8% alcohol by volume, and it’s a good one to age for a few years as it will mature and change.
My pint of Uinta Anniversary Barley Wine arrived a dark reddish brown in color with a light, creamy head formation and a heady nose of sweet caramel malt. A sip revealed a truly formidable brew of impressive body, thick and rich with dark sweet malt. Chewy caramel, fresh bread, and a hint of raisin come right to the fore, while underneath it all a decidedly orange citrus aroma slowly rises to the top. In the finish, that citric character becomes slightly bitter, although nowhere near as much as in other American examples of the style like Sierra Nevada’s Bigfoot .
I was very impressed, and remarked that the more I drank of this little beauty the more I liked it. If you’re in Utah, or if Utah comes to you, you really should try it.
And remember, try a new beer today, and drink outside the box.
*Pricing data accurate at time of review or latest update. For reference only, based on actual price paid by reviewer.
(B)=Bottled
(D)=Draft
(G)=Growler
