Barrel aging and the future.

My comment meant that I agree with you. They try but all the infections and failed prepaid membership beers are unacceptable.

 

Hitachino is I do believe the first to barrel age with sake barrels. Their XH is amazing!

 

I havent seen this or heard of this. All I know of them is their radioactive beers.

 

Hitachino is awesome and no worries of radiation!

 

Everything in brewing is a pendulum, the pendulum has swung towards everything being barrel aged which is the latest craze, eventually the pendulum will swing back away from barrel aging.

Just like Saisons and Berliner Weisses are the new IPA/DIPAs, it's all a trend.

Personally, my palate as well as everyone else's has changed and will change dramatically over years. I use to like big barrel aged brews, but now I don't care for them at all. All I want is a well made, easy drinking, old fashion good beer. Now, instead of always searching for the latest crazy beer that pushes the envelope, I find myself reaching for and going back to revisit the readily available classics like Duval, Chimay GR, Saison DuPont, Bigfoot Barleywine, Torpedo, Aventinus, and many more. I enjoy never waiting in line or searching for a good six-pack of Torpedo and I know my money was well spent and I am going to enjoy it every time.

 

The Rare Barrel is an example & won't be the last around. I think there will be a good amount of breweries whom age all their beer in barrels &/or foeders. Time will tell & it will mostly all be in the Belgian philosophy of brewing too but yeah.

Barrel aging is an art in itself. There will be breweries to come that focus more on wood aging beer than on brewing the beer itself on the hot side. That's my prediction at least.

 

Barrel aged beers are a very small % of craft beer. They will remain so for the a long, long time.

 

It will still take up an enormous amount of space which costs money because these beers require patience to produce and do well.

 

Jolly Pumpkin puts everything through the wood.

 

Some time ago I saw a chart at a talk that put the Lambic and Old Bruns at about 3% of the beer production in Belgium.

 

No..

The vast VAST majority of wine made out there in the world is made in vats (tanks)... not unlike beer.

 

I would personally like to see more creativity in terms of what barrels breweries are using and what beers they are aging in said barrels. I feel like the Bourbon barrel aged stout has become a safety net for breweries putting out annual special releases. Don't get me wrong, they can be great, but at this point these beers have become a dime-a-dozen it seems. Brewers need to start branching out in there barrel selection (and this is starting to happen, I know).
The barrel should be treated as an ingredient, and there are numerous types of spirit barrels available just like there are numerous cultivars of hops on the market. How boring would it be if every IPA was solely hopped with Cascade, for example, and nothing else. Pretty boring, right? This is how I feel all of these Bourbon beers are going.
I also am noticing that much like craft beer, craft distilling seems to be enjoying a boom in popularity and new distilleries seem to be popping up everywhere. Hopefully small brewers and distillers can develop some great relationships in the near future. There could be some very exciting barrels becoming available for aging beer in.
Cheers BAs, and I hope you are enjoying some barrel-aged beer this weekend. I know I am!

 

I am personally not a fan of barrel aged beers and typically avoid them, so I hope for my sake, they don't become a majority in craft brewing.

 

Like sour beers, they command a premium price although the costs, minus storage space, is not substantially more. That is driving all breweries to want to throw out a little barrel aging or sour program.

I did the math as a homebrewer and buying grain at retail and a 15 gallon barrel, also at retail, I could produce bombers of BBA imperial stout for about $1.60 apiece. A little higher if you wanted to toss in fringe water and electric costs. For a commercial brewery they can buy grain at a third of the price (or less) and put more product through larger barrels. They also have taxes and other production costs to deal with (not to mention wholesale costs) but their cost per bottle is not significantly more. For a commercial brewery to be able to sell a $2 six pack for $10 or a $2 bomber for $20 it's more lucrative to sell the $20 BBA stout bomber and well worth the cost of the space to age that beer.

There will come a time where barrel aged beers will be too readily available and the allure will start to drop off, along with the quality across the board. There may come a day when barrel aged beers jumps the shark and shock top releases a barrel aged wheat beer.

 

...

 

See, we're all fucked.

 

Barrel- aged beers may never dominate the market but there will be more and more breweries that use it as a primary business model. A few have already been mentioned that are up and running (The Bruery, Rare Barrel). Side Project is 100% barrel-aged and every release sells out immediately so I think its pretty clear there is enough demand to support this as a primary business model. Cost to the consumer will keep it from dominating the market in the foreseeable future but demand for these beers will continue to see their market share increase.

 

I tread lightly with BA beers. Maybe it's Murphy's law, or just general bad luck , but I have had sooooo many infected bottles of BA beers. And at $20+ a whack, that's a serious kick to the zipper.

I've had 4 infected BA this year, and it's not even Feb. Last year I had 4 Bourbon County and 2 Black Ops infected. It's discouraging, and What gives? It's a loss on the consumers end, every time.

2 Smoking wood , 1 Bourbon County Rye , 1 BA Narwhal. There's $75 + just this year alone

 

I was just thinking about this after drinking the Firestone Walker XVIII, and my thought was that blending is the future. Single-style barrel aged beers just seemed so primitive and unrefined all of the sudden after drinking that beautiful beer.

 

As does Anchorage.