In my heart of hearts I hoped that the canned VSOJ wouldn’t be thaaaaat much better than “regular old” straight jacket. Frustratingly, there is a marked difference. It is a meaningful improvement across the board. The sweetness is incredibly tempered and reminds me a lot of b3 Aaron with that silky micromacaroon mouthfeel. It’s so much coconut and caramelized fig. The overriding aspect to this is just pillowy soft execution. It’s like when you watch a seasoned road comic who makes crowd and callbacks seem effortless. The heat and sweetness from regular SJ have reconciled their differences and it’s like a broken home who have raised this magnificent casky schooled child. It’s mature for its age but young for the can and as a result nothing slows you down. You can mow through the cream of wheat brown sugar and baker’s with careless abandon. The quality and accessibility of this beer may do more harm than good to barleywine sine qua non. I will suffer this fate since this exists as the absolute figurehead of what Midwest barleydynamics can accomplish. With this and the recent bb4d, floccbois and battermouths do not stand a chance.