When I visited Victory back in July of 1997 and got the grand tour, I spied a single bottle of this stuff in the cold storage room. I attempted to bribe the tour guide into selling me a bottle, but to his credit he stood firm and said they were aging some Horizontal for Christmas 1997. I did get some later that year though and here's what I thought then:

Old Horizontal is a slightly burnt orange in color with little head and carbonation, as one would expect from a barleywine. It has a big, sweet malty nose and a wonderfully complex palate combining yeasty notes of fresh bread and butterscotch with a citric fruitiness and alcoholic warmth. The hops balance the beer nicely in the finish and linger just long enough to let you know you've tasted a real beer. Good sized chunks of yeast danced around the glass when I poured, slowly settling to the bottom.

Right now I have a bottle of the November 1998 batch in front of me. I scored a case of it with a year of age already on it at a PA beer distributor at the end of 1999. It's pretty much just as I've described above. Very malty, lots of alcoholic warmth (bottle says 11% by volume), the bread and butterscotch in abundance. Notes of raisin and prune thrown in too. This is a malty, yeasty barleywine rather than a hoppy one. It ages nicely, this is a style that ages nicely. I'm sipping it on a very cool June night, and it's well suited to that climate. As per usual for big beers like this, I prefer them as an aperitif or digestif rather than an accompaniment to cuisine.

Update 8/30/2013:  Tonight, of course, was the sixth anniversary of the passing of our beloved Beer Hunter, Michael Jackson. And what better way to commemorate Michael, who was fond of enjoying a pint at his local, then with a few beers at my local, Taco Mac? Perhaps the most memorable of all the beers with which I toasted Michael was a glass of 2009 maltage Victory Old Horizontal Barleywine. A four year old keg of such a wonderful barleywine, freshly tapped, just would not be possible without the Beer Hunter in my opinion.

My glass was a pure delight, too, thick and  viscous with sweet chewy dark malt, fresh bread and caramel, and dark fruity raisin. The finish dried most, but not all, of the sweetness, mostly the work of the big alcohol warmth. The hops had almost completely mellowed out. Just a wonderful beer, and a wonderful way to enjoy it. And at $6 for an 11 ounce glass a no-brainer.

Home