Creature Comforts The Tree That Owns Itself

The Tree That Owns Itself is a bourbon barrel-aged barleywine (12.5%). The story goes that the tree's owner, desiring to protect it, deeded ownership of the tree and surrounding land to itself. In honor of the local legend dating back to the 1800s, they brewed this barleywine, which aged more than 2 years in bourbon barrels. Barleywines are a tough style to crack, but when you have a great one they can be a sublime expression of malt flavors. Fruity, rich, decadent complexity is what you want out of a barleywine, and they set out to reach that using a traditional English barley base, all English ingredients, a long boil, and extended maturation in select, small batch bourbon barrels for over 26 months.