There was a time when drinking Barley Wine was considered a British patriotic duty! Sadly the style has fallen out of fashion somewhat since then. We believe it deserves more recognition and celebration and in this episode we look at the history of barley wine, what you can expect a typical example to taste like and we ponder what's stopping us all quaffing more of it.

We sample: Coniston Brewing Co - No. 9 Barley Wine (8.5%)

We have 'A Pint With' James Watt and Martin Dickie of BrewDog... that frankly almost descends into anarchy.

We also mention some of our other favourite barley wines:

Sambrooks - No. 5

Fullers Vintage Ale

Adnams - Tally Ho (7.2%)

Woodforde's - Headcracker (7%)

The cheese selection served with Headcracker at the British Guild of Beer Writers dinner was from Alsop & Walker of Mayfield in East Sussex and included: Mayfield, Sussex Camembert and Sussex Blue.

We also briefly discussed Thomas Hardy's Ale - which you can read more about here. The original brewer of the beer, Eldridge Pope apparently went out of business in 1996 after failing to make a go of becoming a pub company as well as a brewery.