The calendar for Arizona Beer Week is really beginning to fill up. The latest event: The first-ever Barleywine Festival at the Handlebar Tempe on Tuesday, Feb. 17.
If you’re unfamiliar with barleywines, they’re strong ales with 8% to 12% alcohol by volume, putting them in the same range as wines, but they’re brewed with grain, not fruit.
Like wines, they’re often marketed by vintage, intended to be aged.
Among the barleywines scheduled to be on tap at the Handlebar:
- Four Peaks 2012 Hopsquatch
- Stone 2013 Smoked Old Guardian
- Stone 2015 Dry Hopped Old Guardian
- Sierra Nevada 2012 Bigfoot
- Sierra Nevada 2013 Bigfoot
- Sierra Nevada 2014 Bigfoot
- Sierra Nevada 2015 Bigfoot
- Sierra Nevada 2015 Barrel Aged Bigfoot
- Deschutes 2014 Mirror Mirror
- Mike Hess 2015 Oreum Rex
- Elevation 2014 Arete
- Bell’s Third Coast Ale
- Firestone Walker barleywine TBA
Entrance to the festival will be free.
