With more than 60 breweries in the Greater Cincinnati region, seasonal beers can become a bit of a dime a dozen around the holidays.
So when Joe Mumper, co-founder of Westwood's West Side Brewing, and head brewer Colin Foy laid out plans to release a high-alcoholic-content beer that would stand out among the rest back in October of 2019, the duo decided to go all in and make a product that would last through multiple seasons. What they came up with has become an annual tradition.
Each year on Jan.1, the brewery releases its Barleywine Style Ale with its 11% alcoholic content the brewery describes as "intense with a subtle date-like fruitiness that goes perfect with a big, layered malty body." The best part? The beer can be consumed both fresh or aged. And with the option to drink samples from years prior, the brewery encourages sampling both.
Barleywine hasn't just caught the attention of locals. In 2019, it cracked USA TODAY's list of America's 40 Most Delicious Beers.
"There's no rhyme or reason, or to our knowledge historical traditions of drinking Barleywine on the first of the year, it was just a way for us to try to be unique and create our own tradition," Mumper said in an interview with The Enquirer.
Barleywine is back in 2022, and as tradition, became available starting on Jan. 1. Samples from 2021, 2020 and 2019 are also available at the brewery in addition to the fresh-brewed 2022 version. Mumper said many Barleywine fans enjoy coming in and experiencing a flight consisting of different years of Barleywine tasted side-by-side. They then judge how long it should be aged and which year tastes best.
"We like the idea of being able to do what we call a vertical tasting," Mumper said, "which is tasting the same beer (of multiple years) together, and people can do that in our taproom, they can sample draft versions of each of those four years, or they can purchase cans of prior years and this year and do their own vertical tasting at home by just buying a little bit extra every year."
The beer is available on tap now at West Side's 3044 Harrison Ave. location. It can also be purchased in four-packs at the brewery. Though the stock is limited, Mumper says there's enough product to sell Barleywine for a couple of months until the brewery runs out.
"We try to make enough that we can sell it throughout the year," he said. "That's our goal, but it sells out kind of sooner every year."
For more information, visit www.westsidebrewing.com.
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