John Barleycorn Must Die
The New York Times dining section offered a review of barleywines this past week. Yes, they brought in two master brewers to assist, but the article is still a wine review first and foremost.
I'll be the first to admit that one shouldn't be pounding barleywines(*) and that barleywines are somewhere between beer and wine when it comes to flavor profiles and general approaches. At the same time, I'd appreciate a review that observes the distinction between the pretention of wine reviews and the realities of beer. One can describe flavor and body and color and finish of any beverage without becoming completely ephemeral and illusory the way wine reviewers often do. There's plenty of good beer being made that deserves full and fair coverage to explain what's going on... but wine-snob B.S. isn't the way to introduce better beer to people who grew up with the myth of Joe Sixpack.
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(*) It's nice that nearly 12 years later, I learn that Anchor's "Old Foghorn" is considered a barleywine and is roughly 9% alcohol (as opposed to 5% for most beers). That damn beer is directly responsible for the single worst hangover I've ever experienced -- a night where I joined friends at the old Bardo Rodeo in Arlington and was playing catch-up with pitchers of Foghorn before we moved to the Four Courts and shifted down-scale to Budweiser. It's bad enough moving all your stuff in August in DC, never mind a skull-splitting headache that didn't wear off until nearly 9pm the next day (i.e. eighteen hours or so after I finished drinking).
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