I'm just curious, and want to ask you long-time craft beer drinkers who can remember... what beers were the first to be Barrel-Aged, first IPA's, first fruit beers, first sour, etc. Anyone wanna weigh in?
- Basically all beers were barrel-aged until the invention of stainless steel (though in some countries, the barrels were pitch-lined so the beer got little if any barrel flavor). - Similarly, nearly all beers were probably at least a little bit sour before the invention of modern sanitation. Though of currently produced "sours", the oldest are the Lambics and Flanders red/browns. - IPA as a defined style dates from IIRC the 1830s. There are some good histories online. - Fruit has been used in beer since pretty much the beginning of beer, also.
I think Goose Island was one of the first to age beer in Bourbon Barrels specifically, with Bourbon County Stout. I don't think they were the first to ever try it, but perhaps the first to market it and sell it. This would have been around 1992 IIRC.
In the US (and, IIRC, Germany) lagering tanks made of enamel-coated steel, and glass-lined steel came before stainless steel - and were in use by the late 1800's here. (Lots of old ads and mentions in Google Books reproductions of old brewing industry magazines for the Pfaudler Vacuum Fermentation Company.) Yeah, in the US, wooden fermentation and aging vessels were apparently always coated with some substance to prevent saturation of the wood, the transfer of a wood flavor, and as a preservative - shellac, varnish, paraffin, "pitch enamel", etc., are all mentioned as easier and preferable to the pitch used routinely for wooden (and, later, steel) kegs. Other than stainless, the 1940's edition of The Practical Brewer, also mentions aluminum and even concrete tanks used in breweries as storage vessels at the time, besides the traditional wood and glass/enamel steel.
I have a some Munsey's magazines from the early 1900's that have ads for beers that spent X amount of time "in the wood." I will try to scan one of the ads and list the date the issue was published.
IIRC, SS was not invented until circa 1906-1907. I do remember the adds for the glass lined tanks in Latrobe. The wooden vessels would be lined to keep the wood flavor out, and contamination. I have read where some say the Ballantine vats were not coated, but other have said they were. The homebrew clone I did has a woody taste, but it has to be from the bullion hops, as the beer was in SS and glass, it never touched wood.
The hymn to Ninkasi makes mention of using wine to ferment the beer and it's been speculated that date wine was used as a sort of ancient yeast starter, so there's your first fruit beer. Also your first braggot.
