Ok, we are at the end of this rant of beers that were too good to pass up over the weekend. I'll be doing my best to avoid 3 Floyd's for a bit, as I feel like they have been the brunt of my posts (hint hint to my marketing team).
This is an interesting option for any brewery to make, especially in the way they did it. With this being a collaborative effort from two breweries, I guess something different was bound to happen. The style of this beer, technically, is an American Barleywine, but I'm going to stop us for a second. Usually, when you say barleywine, you expect a dark color with a huge alcohol content to compliment some seriously complex flavors and aromas. Most of the time, you would be right, however, this is not one of those times.
3 Floyd's & Mikkeller used rice in this beer, hence the name, and that changes it in my eyes considerably. Rice has been used widely in Asia for thousands of years to make alcohol, but when you hear about it in beer in the US, most people in the craft industry think it is a gluten-free attempt or something from the dreaded "Big 3" to save on costs. Firstly, the gluten-free aspect is possible but unlikely because most breweries are going to use some kind of barley, but that does not mean it doesn't happen. Secondly, the cost of rice is actually higher in some cases than barley (the thing that is cheap and "ruins" beer is the addition of large amounts of corn, which the "Big 3" are extremely guilty of using).
So, what do we call this? I'm going to use the term they used on the label, which as rice beer, and make my decisions from there, keeping in mind that the style is that of a barleywine.
Color: Very golden, almost orangish to an extent. The rice clearly has taken the malt that was used in this and really lightened it up, almost to the point of being straw-like. It is very interesting to see something this light not be a pilsner.
Head: As is expected with the barleywine style, the head on this is wickedly strong and lasts like a certain battery-powered rodent mascot (not looking to get yelled at for copywright infringement here after all). I figure this may even be able to take some designs in it, along the same lines as a good Irish stout.
Aroma: The first word that came to mind was HOPS! Who would have guessed an American Barleywine, even if it has rice in it, has a huge hop profile? More or less everyone, which is my point. The citrus/floral notes mix nicely with some piney aromas, clearly giving me the impression of some American hops (Centennial, Cascade, maybe Columbus?).
Taste: Upfront, this beer smacks your taste buds with good hard bitterness, but it starts to soften as the sweetness of the malt and rice catch up. After a few sips, this beer was going down far too smoothly for a ABV of 10.4%, which indicates just how good the flavors are at masking it. The body of this beer, lightend from the rice, was a bit off-putting for the style. The after taste was the big no-no for me, due to being just too much bitter in an already pretty bitter beer. The saving grace was the finish here, because the rice gave it a clean and crisp ending, even with the after taste.
Overall: This beer was an attempt to rewrite the script on something that is still having its rules defined. The style of barleywine is as varied as anything can be, and introducing rice is a really novel idea. I enjoyed how it lightend such a big beer, and I suspect that they plan to work with it, should it be brewed again, to avoid some of the off-flavors in the after taste and possibly thicken its body a bit. I'd like to try it again in the future, and I'm curious if this will be revisited by either brewery in the future, but only time will tell.
Score: 7.5/10
As always, drink well and be merry. Slainte!
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