Victory Oak Horizontal

Several years ago, Victory Brewing Company made a barleywine called Old Horizontal.  It was a moderately hoppy barleywine that was available during the winter in six-packs, a rarity for the style.  They put it on hold for a few years because they didn't have the space to brew it while they were expanding (they wanted to focus on their better-selling beers to finance the expansion).  They are bringing it back this year, but in between the early retirement and later this winter, they decided to do a special release: Old Horizontal aged in bourbon barrels.  This is called Oak Horizontal.

Obviously, it's been years since I had the original, so my memory is a bit fuzzy about how the beer looked.  I do remember it having a surprisingly ample carbonation for a barleywine, something this version retains; having a mild nose with little hop notes; and for having a more hoppy but still restrained bitterness in the flavor.  Also, I liked it.

The aroma of this particular iteration reminds me a little bit of Founders Backwoods Bastard, chiefly in the way the combination of bourbon and malt evokes cherries and vanilla.  There is a hint of toffee as well which distinguishes this from Old Horizontal, and I'm not sure if that's from the bourbon or mild oxidation.  The overall sensation is sweet, but not cloying.  Like Old Horizontal but unlike most American barleywines, the smell of hops is not detectable.

Also like Old Horizontal, the hops I couldn't smell are more than apparent once I actually taste the beer.  Unlike the base beer, however, the hops in Oak Horizontal do not add a pleasant bitterness for balance.  Instead, they clash with the barrel.  There's a reason most barrel-aged barleywines in this country are typically English (minimum hopping) in nature, and that is because hops and whiskey normally don't mesh well.  Here, the hops are actually stronger than the bourbon notes, overwhelming the burnt sugar from the whiskey as well as the vanilla from the wood.  The wood, regrettably, takes on a more astringent tannic character here.  Astringency and bitterness never work well together.  On the plus side, the cherry and toffee flavors are still prominent, and the beer's alcohol rarely shows itself.


Barrel aging beer is tricky.  Beyond the technical, time, storage space and potential bacterial concerns, beer requires a certain profile to do well in a barrel.  There's a reason many breweries don't release barrel-free versions of some of their beer, and it's probably because they're a mess without the time in the wood.  The corollary to that is beers which taste great without barrel aging won't always improve when brewers try to barrel age them, because they weren't designed with barrels in mind.  That seems to be what happened here.  The base beer is/was great without the bourbon barrel, and the hoppy aspect makes it unsuitable for barrel treatment.  It isn't bad, just worse than regular Old Horizontal.  Victory can't bring that beer back soon enough.