Wild Rose Barley Wine

[Bobsy]

For anyone travelling out west (or living there) one of the best barley wines in Canada is being released in a few days. Here's the press release:

January 5, 2010 - Calgary, AB - Wild Rose Brewery is pleased to announce the upcoming launch of Wild Rose Barley Wine, its latest Seasonal Release beer, on January 9th. This unique brew has been aged for a full 12 months and it is only the second time that Wild Rose has brewed this style of beer. Fewer than 100 cases of the Wild Rose Barley Wine will be released.

Wild Rose Barley Wine is an extra strong ale made from malted barley and is brewed to 8.7% alc./vol. The flavour is slightly sweet and malty with warm alcohol notes and the colour is a deep copper with an amber glow. This batch was brewed in January 2009 and has aged for a full 12 months before being made available to beer lovers.

Wild Rose Brewery first released a Barley Wine in February 2008, as part of their Seasonal Release program, where every other month a different beer style is made available in limited quantities. Tina Wolfe, Wild Rose's Marketing Manager, says "the idea behind our Seasonal Release beer program is to brew unique beer styles that may not be readily available in Canada." Wolfe continues to state that "our goal is to educate consumers about the wide variety of beer styles that the craft brewing industry is actively creating."

In celebration of the launch, on Friday, January 8th only, visitors to the Wild Rose Brewery & Taproom will have the opportunity to try the 12 month aged Barley Wine alongside the 2008 brew. Kegs will be tapped at 4pm sharp MST. Crafted in limited quantities, Wild Rose Barley Wine will be available in 500ml flip-top bottles at select liquor stores in Alberta, on tap at a handful of watering holes including The Ship and Anchor in Calgary and at Wild Rose Brewery & Taproom (403.720.2733).

Established in 1996, Wild Rose Brewery is a local Calgary craft-brewery, which is passionate about creating great tasting beers, and is dedicated to using only the freshest ingredients. Available throughout Alberta in bottles and on tap, all of Wild Rose's beers are all natural, unpasteurized and preservative-free. This quality is reflected in Wild Rose Brewery's six bottled beers - Wild Rose Velvet Fog, Wild Rose SOB, Wild Rose WRaspberry Ale, Wild Rose WRed Wheat, Wild Rose Brown Ale and Wild Rose IPA.

[Cagiva650]

I visited the Wild Rose Brewery back in September. Very good beers. I loved their IPA.

[boney]

Not only is it the barley wine being released at the tap room, but it's on cask too. I think I recall there being a second unannounced cask being made available that night as well. I'm going to try to make it down if I can swing it.

FYI for anyone passing through Calgary, they tap a differnet cask every Friday afternoon....usually slight variations on their existing brews and they are always excellent.

[GregClow]

Not only is it the barley wine being released at the tap room, but it's on cask too. I think I recall there being a second unannounced cask being made available that night as well.

The press release issued yesterday says the following:

"In celebration of the launch, on Friday, January 8th only, visitors to the Wild Rose Brewery & Taproom will have the opportunity to try the 12 month aged Barley Wine alongside the 2008 brew. Kegs will be tapped at 4pm sharp MST."

The "12 month aged Barley Wine" is the new edition, brewed in Jan 2009 and released now. The 2008 brew is the original edition, and I presume it's the "surprise" beer mentioned in the original announcement from a couple of weeks ago.

Curious that it says "Kegs will be tapped", as these Friday things are usually cask events as you note. If you make it, I'll be curious to know what they end up serving.

[boney]

Hmmmm. Didn't catch the "keg" part in the press release at first. The barley wine appears on Wild Rose's cask calendar on the website though. Could be a mistake putting release news in the cask calendar or alternatively by calling it a keg.

[DarkertheBetter]

It was indeed a keg. As noted the Fridays are usually casks, however they had put aside a full keg from last year in the corner of their cold room. So today they served up the 2009 on tap and the 2008 on "tap" - direct feed from the keg through a cooler to a tap handle. Both great, and the year in storage had served the 2008 very well. Much enjoyed.