You're a good man, John. I was starting to miss this thread.
Two Mondays ago, my brother and I went to the Toronado in SF and sampled 8 of the available barleywines they had on tap. I have the sheet with all the names on it somewhere at home, but can only remember a couple of names off the top of my head.
Our first round consisted of 4 6-oz. pours, which we shared. The most memorable was Alaskan Big Nugget Barleywine. It rated the 5th best (out of 50 or so brews) according to the pub's judges. It was quite dark, if I remember correctly, and tasted similar to but bolder than their Winter Ale.
The second round consisted of 3 3-oz. pours -- barleywine is potent stuff and we'd already learned out lesson with the 6-oz pours in the first round -- and a full 12-oz glass of Deschutes Mirror Mirror. (Lesson? what lesson?) I couldn't resist ordering that much because I thought I'd never see it again.
The Mirror Mirror was my favorite of this round, and byt the time I was a third of the way through it, both of us were getting pretty silly, and full. I still feel guilty now that I was unable to drink the last couple ounces because it was time to go and I needed some food -- NOW.
All in all, a great experience. Next time, it's 3-oz tastings all the way through.