Barley Wine Vs Beer: The Differences

If you’ve been wondering about barley wine vs beer and what the differences are, it is understandable. Barley wine is a misnomer of sorts while also being quite an apt name for what the beverage actually is.

To fully comprehend the differences between barley wine and beer, considering barley wine is in point of fact a beer, it helps to follow the trajectory of both barley and ale from their origins to their places in our food chain today.

Why Barley?

First, you hardly ever hear of barley outside of the brewing industry. There was once a common canned soup on market shelves called beef and barley soup, but even that did not quite take off in the hearts and hearths of modern civilization. Certainly not like rice, beans, or even quinoa.

And it is too bad.

Barley is an ancient grain, like the much-touted quinoa, and it is packed with nutrients.

Belonging to the group of “cereal grains,” barley is high in fiber, which reduces hunger and keeps you fuller longer, it improves digestion, it lowers cholesterol and reduces gallbladder problems, and it may even reduce the risk of heart disease.

It is no wonder that the agricultural revolution, when humans decided to settle down and grow their own food, including grains, led to a rise in life expectancy and population.

Indeed, the evidence today still shows that farmers tend to die less frequently from cancer, heart disease, or diabetes compared to people that live in cities.

Obviously, there are several factors involved, but study after study has shown that eating whole grains is a large contributor to longevity.

Whole grain barley is a miracle food of sorts.

As an ancient grain, barley was one of the first grains to be farmed, and of course farmers would have worked on various ways to integrate this food into daily meals. You don’t want to get bored with the same foods over and over, after all.

Thus, farmers would toast grains, soak grains, and work grains into cereals of sorts.

Barley undoubtedly saved countless lives in addition to extending them, and ale was a natural byproduct of this grain.

The Discovery of Ale

One particular meal of barley soaked in water and boiled was likely made in a large batch and left out.

After several days, this meal would have fermented, thanks to all the starches in the grain, and that is one story of how ale was born.

Once people discovered that this barley meal could be turned into an ale, the beverage took off quite quickly, not because of the buzz you could get – the alcohol content in these early ales was likely close to 1 percent.

After all, barley is rich in starch, not sugar, and while starch is a fermentable carbohydrate, it is more difficult to ferment than sugar, and so it would attract yeast with a lower alcohol tolerance.

Test Your Yeast

 

But those early ales essentially guaranteed clean drinking water. First the boiling, then the alcohol, even in small amounts, and then the herbs added later made ale a way to hydrate and nourish entire families, from the smallest children to the elderly.

Of course, ale then became a household staple, and pub owners and innkeepers also kept it on hand for weary travelers and locals who needed a night out.

The Rise of Barley Wine

Over time, farmers and brewers alike would have begun experimenting with barley, with ways to increase flavor, incorporate it into new meals, and make various different beverages with it.

What both discovered quite quickly was that toasting the cereal grain changed its chemical makeup. Suddenly, you turn a starchy, rather boring grain into something sweeter and more pleasing to the palate, which makes for both a more delicious meal and a stronger ale.

The toasting process in cereal grains converts starches into sugars, making the grain more fermentable, which then raises the alcohol content as yeast has more to work with. The sweeter wort will even attract yeast that has a higher alcohol tolerance.

Now, ales can reach an ABV of 4 or even 5 percent.

It’s All About the ABV

Then, of course, it was not long before brewers realized they could pack their wort with even more malted barley, which would attract a still more alcohol tolerant yeast and raise the ABV to 8 and even 12 percent.

Now you no longer have beer; you have something much closer to wine, which gave this higher alcohol beverage its name – barley wine.

So, barley wine is in fact beer, but at the time it was brewed, even the strongest ales never rose above 6% ABV. A beer packed with extra barley malt was viewed as more of a wine with such a high alcohol content, and the name stuck.

The extra barley malt loaded the beverage with even more sweetness than before, more hops needed to be added, which made the drink both sweeter than beer and more hoppy. All in all, barley wine comes out much more complex than a simple beer. It is also able at these alcohol contents to be aged better than classic beer.

Thus, while barley wine is truly beer, it is thought of as closer to wine for reasons of ABV and complexity.

Barley Wine Today

Today, barley wine would fall far short of the “strongest beers” on the market, with Snake Venom rising to a whopping 68% ABV, but in terms of classic beers, barley wine is still on part with strong ales and imperial stouts.

It is certainly worth experimenting with from a brewer’s perspective, especially when it comes to exploring flavor, aroma, and texture using various amounts of barley malt and hops.

Who knows? Your loyal drinkers may find a new barley wine to love.

Cheers!

Passionate about the beer and/or wine making process? So are we! If you’re interested in finding out how you can use our technology to control fermentation and monitor your yeast, save work hours and improve the cost-efficiency of your business, drop us a line at [email protected] or check out our product pages:

Also, you can now get access to a fully functional demo account to test your yeast via our Web App. Completely free of charge and with no commitment to purchase.

Sources:

  1. https://www.foodandwine.com/drinks/what-barleywine
  2. https://bevlaw.com/bevlog/barleywine-is-it-beer-wine-or-both/
  3. https://beer.fandom.com/wiki/Barley_wine
  4. https://www.anchorbrewing.com/blog/the-barleywine-tradition/
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