Smoked Barleywine Ale
Our newest brewer, Dave Kilgour was backed into a corner at the Manly Men Beer club meeting. The club members demanded an English style barleywine ale brewed with a dose of new world style smoked grain. His second task was to come up with a name for a smokey beer brewed in the shadow of Maine’s cool ocean waters.
Here in Maine, sea smoke is a fog that appears in bitter cold air just above the water’s surface as it meets the relatively warmer ocean water. Thus, rising columns of condensing water vapor are formed, appearing to be wispy fog on an otherwise clear winter’s morning.
Given this image, Dave set out to craft a brew with the enchantment and ruggedness of Maine’s winter waters. Brewed with cherry wood smoked barley, this ale attains the subtle warmth of a barleywine ale without being overbearing. The introduction of the smoked flavor acts to balance the sweetness inherent in the barley-wine style yielding a quirky, yet sophisticated beer.