Barleywines are brewers’ time capsules. With their full flavor, rich texture, and aging potential, barleywines preserve the complexity of their ample malt components for years to come. The same can be said for wheatwines—interpretations of American-style wheat beers taken to an indulgent extreme.
Yet a skilled brewer can push almost any grain to the “-wine” threshold. In recent years, intrepid brewers have been exploring the outer reaches of this malty universe, jamming their mash tuns full of local six-row, millet, hybrid rye-wheat malt, crystal, or oak-smoked wheat, among others.
Of course, there are technical hurdles. Brewers want to keep the mash from turning to concrete, and sugars in the resulting wort must be accessible to yeast. Therefore, these brawny brews require close attention to recipe-building as well as to mashing, sparging, and fermentation techniques. But brewers say the resulting juice is worth the squeeze. Often, these “weirdwines” are the first of their kinds, offering the deepest possible dive into the flavors and textures of a particular grain or malt.