Sierra Nevada - Barrel-Aged Narwhal

Maybe it collects Whiskey from the barrel, or maybe they pitch a stronger yeast?

 

Okay, so when is the release date????

 

Looking forward to a bottle of this STAT !!!

 

Just cracked open a 2012 bottle last night. It held up real nicely! Looking forward to the BA version even more.

 

I've had this before on draft. Excellent. This could certainly be a big-dog for SN.

 

For all those saying this should be more readily available than Parabola just remember that SN has a much bigger distribution than Firestone Walker. According to SeekABrew (not sure the accuracy of the site) Firestone Walker distributes to 20 states and D.C. Compare that to SN covering all the US. Maybe it will be easier to get but there is also a chance it may be even more difficult because it will be spread out across many more states than Parabola.

 

The beer sits in a barrel, sometimes not completely drained of whiskey that is 60-70% alcohol. Depending on the duration of the beer in the barrel, lots of interaction takes place. In laymans terms the whiskey seeps into the beer, thus higher abv and yumalicious barrel flavor.

 

I also think some of the water in the beer gets soaked into the barrel (and evaporates?). Not 100% sure if what I just stated is correct or not, but for some reason I feel like I may have read that before...

 

When whiskey sits in the barrel, it looses 1-4% per year of volume. In Scotland , the abv gets lower, in the USA it get higher. It is known as the angels share. Some of the beer would be lost due to evaporation, soaking into the wood as well. Depends on length of time in the barrel as well as temp.

 

Oh wow - what are the chances we will get any in Texas?

 

Barrel-aging generally doesn't add much to the ABV. I've done a few homebrews with bourbon added, and it serves as a flavor adder and not really an ABV adder.

Take for example adding an entire 750mL (25.36 oz) bottle of 100 proof Knob Creek bourbon to 5 gallons (640 oz) of homebrew.
50.0 / (640 oz / 25.36oz) = 50.0/25.24 = 1.98% increase in ABV
Keep in mind that this is a ridiculous example and if you would actually put that much in, it would taste like straight bourbon.
Most people add 2-3 ounces which would yield you a 0.15-0.2% ABV increase.

Not sure how much bourbon is released from barrel-aging, but you could certainly calculate it for a 200L (6762.8 oz) barrel if you had that number. My guess is that it adds less than 0.25% to it.

 

Did anyone get this yet? Anyone know a specific release date?

 

Sources say Oct/Nov release, though the beer is still in the barrel, so this may change, due to hand-bottling.

 

Has anyone done an Angel's Share(TM)-type beer? Imagine the goodness that could be squeezed from the staves of BCBS barrels!

 

Angel's share is what is evaporated from the barrel (rises to the heavens)....you're talking about, dare I say it..."The Devil's Cut"
http://www.jimbeam.com/devils-cut

 

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/18149/32413/

 

Unfortunately this makes sense.

 

Are cases of bombers always 6 bottles? Cuz for all of FW's boxed offerings, it's 3500 6-bottle cases, so 21,000 bottles total (unless I'm mistaken). If the norm is 12 (which I thought maybe it was), then 6000 cases of BA Narwhal would be 72,000 bottles, or over three times as much as FW—presumably more than compensating for the difference in distribution footprint.

 

For everyone asking for the release date..sierraneveadabill has said on here already that it will be late october/ early november

 

I don't quite think that's the same, is it? Isn't that just barrel-aged?