On Tuesday, Martyn Cornell published an excellent article in which he dives into the differences between old ale and barleywine, and after a bit of a foray into the history of mild ale and the historical difference between "ale" and "beer", finally comes to an interesting conclusing.  I won't spoil it for you, though.  Go and read his article, because he's a great writer and you shouldn't pass him up.

Mr. Cornell's articles frequently include some great examples of old advertisements, and my favorite in this one is the ad for Smith & Bruce's Barrack Ground Brewery, which has a couple of Masonic symbols in it.  It's very neat to spot that sort of thing in a beer ad.

In North America, the barleywines tend to be split pretty evenly between the more old-fashioned English barleywine and the newfangled American barleywine.  The latter is certainly an extreme beer, being overly malty and usually heavily hopped.  Personally, the English style is preferred, with a slightly subdued malt character, well-balanced hops, and a slightly lower ABV that makes it an excellent brew to sip by a roaring fire in the winter.

Of course, in Costa Rica there are neither winters nor roaring fires to sit by.  But I will bide my time, because such things are certainly in my future somewhere.