i went to hard liver fest on saturday. i tried many barleywines, and enjoyed them all. my liver still hurts. here's a list of the barleywines i had, and what i thought, in order of most to least favorite:
firestone walker 2013 sucaba - it's just so damn smooth. i had to resist my temptation to go out and buy a whole case of this after tasting it...
anchorage brewing deal with the devil - the winner of the show, and rightfully so. i swear the advertised 17.5% abv is a lie.
midnight sun arctic devil - like sucaba, but a year younger and a little bit more heat. it's damn good.
lost abby angel's share grand cru - i'm not sure i totally remember what this was... a blend of 4 or 5 different angel's share variants i believe. it was unreal in the taste category, but as it warmed up, it wasn't quite as enjoyable.
black raven 2012 birdbrain - not usually a big fan of american barleywines, but this was excellent.
deschutes 2009 mirror mirror - was good, maybe a little past it's prime though.
alaskan 2012 big nugget - happy i tried it but wouldn't order it again
pike 2012 old bawdy - same as above... happy to have tried it.