Barrel-aged beers seem to be popping up all over the place these days! For the uninitiated, these are beers that get a special vacation inside wood barrels, where they spend time fermenting and pick up all sorts of interesting (or not) flavors from the wood. Are you loving or hating these barrel-aged beers?
A lot depends on the type of barrel used to age the beer. The latest trend has been for breweries to purchase oak barrels previously used for chardonnay or even whiskey and using them for aging beer. You can imagine the kinds of flavors the beer might pick up: warm oak and vanilla from the chardonnay barrels; smoke and caramel from the bourbon!
But we think the kind of beer going into these barrels has to be carefully selected. Not every beer works well with the flavors coming from the wood, and we've definitely sampled some of these: sickly sweet, overpowering smokiness, and/or weirdly fruity. Bleck.
On top of this, the previously used barrels also contribute new bacterias to the fermentation process, which can result in unanticipated flavors - sometimes good, sometimes bad - in the finished beer. Even a carefully selected beer can still turn out too funky to drink. We imagine that as brewers become more familiar with the particular flora and fauna coming from, say, a Kentucky bourbon barrel, they will be better able to craft their beer to match.
But when it's done right, a barrel-aged beer is a fantastic thing. The various elements are perfectly balanced and every sip seems to reveal a different flavor combination. It's still distinctly beer, but with added depth and punch. We think these beers have special potential for food pairing.
Most barrel-aged beers are still being brewed in very small batches, so your best chance of finding one is checking out the small craft brewers in your area. Keep an eye out for them at beer festivals, too. As brewers refine this new offering, we're hoping to see a lot more barrel-aged beers on the market!
Here are two that we've enjoyed recently:
• Excelsior Brute from Ithaca Beer Company (Ithaca, NY) - A wild-fermented sour beer aged in oak
• Bourbon-Barrel Aged Porter from Elevator Brewing Company (Columbus, OH) - a dark, coffee porter aged 4 months in whiskey barrels
Any barrel-aged beers to recommend?
Related: The Real Truth About Skunked Beer
(Image: Flickr member Joe M500 licensed under Creative Commons)
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I'm a huge fan of Innis and Gunn's oak aged beer. It's made in Scotland http://www.innisandgunn.com/ and sold in Ontario by the LCBO in 6 different types. They have a blonde, a connoisseur oak collection, triple matured, and have had a rum cask and a Canadian cask. Both the rum and Canadian casks are discontinued. They typically sell for $4 or $5 per bottle. I've not been able to find any other oak aged beer to try.
Innis & Gunn is among the finest beer I have tasted. I admit they are very different from your standard beer. A few people I know who drink big name domestic American beers hate oak aged beer, because "its too different".
I find them very unique and delicious, albeit a little expensive.
Oh, I really like the idea of a beer aged in rum casks! I hope I can find a few bottles of Innis and Gunn near me. Thanks for the recommendation!
I recently tried Cuvee de Tomme from Lost Abbey brewery in California, and I thought it was pretty delicious. It's aged in bourbon barrels. It's worth a try!
Goose Island's Bourbon County Stout:
http://www.gooseisland.com/pages/bourbon_county_stout/59.php
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Lagunitas has a limited edition bourbon barrel beer that's very tasty, Ruben & the Jets. I had it when I visited the brewery in early August. There's a lot going on flavor-wise - you can definitely taste the bourbon - but it all blends together really well. If you like dark beers. And bourbon, of course.
Everything from Lagunitas is pretty awesome though, and I highly recommend their brewery tour if you're ever in the North Bay. Free lots of delicious, free beer samples great tap room.
Alagash makes a great bourbon barrel aged beer. If you can find it on tap somewhere it is even better. My only problem with these beers is the price. They are definately a treat. The Alagash can be $18 for a 750ml bottle.
Barrel aging isn't quite the same as barrel fermenting but both are wonderful when done right. We forget that less than 100 years ago all beer was fermented and aged in barrels so this is the past coming back in a glorious way. Fermenting in stainless steel, the norm for 50 years, allows for a more precise outcome but we loose lots of flavor options.
Wood aging an already fermented beer in a barrel that has been steam/heat and high alcohol treated that kills most of the taste altering bacteria and wild yeasts will leave the wood flavors and in the case of, say, a whiskey barrel, residual flavor from what was prior in the wood. That is what most places do as only a month or two will have an effect on the beer and will transform a stout into something more complex than the straight beer itself.
Wood fermenting is a whole other ball of wax. The sour and wild yeast beers from Avery, Lost Abbey, Russian River, New Glarus and Cambridge rely on the bacteria and yeast in wine/port barrels wood to ferment the beer and their flavor profile is totally different than a typical "barrel aged" beer as you are not getting the wood, vanilla or bourbon flavor at all. These take upwards of a year to ferment and are very tricky to produce as each barrel will have different "bugs" in them so not each one makes tasty beer. However the results are amazing when done right.
I'm blessed to have Avery Brewing about 15 minutes from my home here in the Denver area and they are constantly working on wild yeast beers that defy category. All the barrel fermented beers out there are expensive and often limited release but totally worth finding and experiencing.
Brewdog's Paradox Stout, which is aged in Islay scotch casks, is the most flavorful beer I've ever had. It's incredibly expensive, costing $12 for a 12 ounce bottle. Like an Islay scotch, it has an incredibly rich, smoky flavor.
I second the Goose Island and the Allagash.
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