12 November, 2021
ORIGINAL GRAVITY Irish Oak-Aged Barleywine with Coireall Carroll Kent
To celebrate ten years of brewing at Eight Degrees, we wanted to showcase Ireland-based artists in our 2021 Original Gravity series. We ran a competition looking for artworks that reflected our Naturally Adventurous values, expressing our desire to explore and roam again. The winners are featured on this series of five limited beer releases, giving emerging artists a can-sized exhibition space.
ORIGINAL GRAVITY Irish Oak-Aged Barleywine with Coireall Carroll Kent
Original Gravity
Style: Irish oak-aged barleywine
This barleywine was aged in especially rare Irish whiskey barrels that have been made from native Irish oak. It’s a complex, rich and intensely malt-forward drink, with sweet vanilla, caramel wood and whiskey flavours. A very special beer for sipping by the fire.
Artist: Coireall Carroll Kent
I spent a lot of the pandemic trekking across the Irish countryside, and many of the roads that I took to are shrouded in trees just like these. The knots are naturally rooted in Celtic culture, with the concentric circles representing both the curves of our landscape and the bubbles in a good drink!
Discover the artist on Instagram: @coireallcarrollkent
Style: Irish oak-aged barleywine
Malt: Pale ale malt, Carapils and Cararoma.
Hops: Nugget and Cascade.
Yeast: US05 yeast.
ABV: 12.2%
IBUs: 82
Tasting notes
Colour/appearance: a beautiful bright ruby red with caramel coloured head. Good lacing on the glass.
Aroma: this is pure Christmas on the nose, with marzipan and vanilla to the forefront backed up by raisins and dried fruit. All the aromas of Christmas pudding, and then some. Keep swirling that glass and smelling – this beer bears repeated sniffing.
Flavour: lots of warm woody vanilla and oak tannins, alongside deep caramel malt, dried cherries, raisins and dates. There’s a touch of candied fruit: both sweet candied pineapple and bitter candied orange peel. All the flavours that you might find in a toasted almond paste-covered Christmas cake. A smooth lingering toffee flavour.
Aftertaste: a nicely dry oxidised finish with a hint of assertive bitterness towards the back end that makes you want another sip. Savour slowly.
Food pairings
Get those brandy snifters out! You definitely don’t want to hurry this gorgeous beer. Try it with the bluest of the blue cheeses that you can get your hands on as it will happily stand up to any funk that you throw at it. Stilton is the obvious pairing but we like to stick with Irish cheese on our Christmas cheeseboard so Louth’s Bellingham Blue, Young Buck from Northern Ireland and our local Crozier Blue from Cashel are all worthy pairings. It’s also the time of the year when all the flavours of spiced beef need a foil: get the best award-winning spiced beef from Tom Durcan in Cork’s English Market, slice thinly and layer it into a sandwich that also involves some of that blue cheese. Serve with ORIGINAL GRAVITY Irish Oak-Aged Barleywine on the side for a wintertime supper with style. Keep a little beer for the end of the meal and pair it with dark chocolate, dried fruit and nuts – or any bar that combines those flavours. Ireland is blessed with a variety of wonderful bean to bar chocolatiers so seek out the darker chocolate from producers like Exploding Tree, NearyNógs, Bean & Goose and Hazel Mountain Chocolate. Closer to home, chocolatier and pastry chef Norma makes truffles and bars at Praline in Mitchelstown which are worth a try with the barleywine. My pick? The 65% dark chocolate tropical bar with mango, passionfruit and pineapple.
Availability: 440ml cans, limited draught.
Launch Date: November 2021.
Get social: #OriginalGravityBarleywine
More ORIGINAL GRAVITY
ORIGINAL GRAVITY Irish Oak-Aged Barleywine with Coireall Carroll Kent
ORIGINAL GRAVITY Hoppy Lager with Niamh McCarthy of Yellow Lion Studio
ORIGINAL GRAVITY Kveik Pale Ale with Woolly Mammoth Design
ORIGINAL GRAVITY Juicy IPA with John Culhane of Graphic Jam
Grab yourself some beers
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