Barrel age without Kentucky

Well the fact that bourbon distillers can't reuse their barrels certainly helps ensure that plenty of barrels are available. Thank God for that.

 

doubtful, but possible. Bourbon just seems like a natural fit with stout.

at the Armsby Abbey's Stout Breakfast, 2 of the 3 special beers had been aged in Apple Brandy barrels. That was a delicious change! I love barrel aged apple brandy so this was really a nice, welcome surprise! So many of the other Stoutfest offerings were coffee or bourbon. The fruitiness of the apple was a delicious change.

that said, the stand out of the breakfast was the 2013 HF Damon. It was boozy and full of bourbon and completely sublime!

 

Bourbon barrels certainly lead the way. It will be interesting to see if the bourbon distillers' barrel shortage mentioned in the Wall St Journal today combined with craft beer growth drives the barrel-aged beer prices even higher.

 

I think @DIM makes a good point. For whiskey to be bourbon it has to be fresh barrels. Thus, after using them they sell them to breweries or to Scotland. The other question is would whiskey be where it is without bourbon? I don't think so and as a result would lead me to think beer needs bourbon to keep the supply of barrels up.

 

I do think bourbon's high sugar content makes it a pretty natural pairing with many of the beers that go into their barrels. Getting that common sweetness makes the bourbon really sit in with the beer – the flavors meld and it can be really great.

At the same time, though, big, sweet beers like imperial stouts are just really popular. It's no wonder that bourbon barrel-aged versions of them are so highly reputed when the style in general is held to such high regard anyways. That is to say, we're infatuated with bourbon barrels because we were infatuated with imperial stout in the first place.

If tastes were different when every brewery started a barrel program, maybe something else would be considered the standard.

 

Bourbon consumption is way up its the kinda new cool spirt, and it's higher end stuff too. Factor in the current laws that demand only new oak charred barrels, and the beer world has its supply.

 

/thread

 

Still looking for a Damon!!!

 

I never thought I would type this, but thank God for Kentucky.

Now how about some love for those Washington hops?

 

Cost. Ex-bourbon is the cheapest due to the rules others have mentioned.

Ex-sherry cask in European oak is the other common whiskey option. Very generally, American oak is denser (less porous), which gives softer coloring and flavors (vanilla, citrus, honey), and European oak is more porous (dried fruit, cinnamon, Christmas cake). However, don't equate these flavors to the beer...remember whiskey doesn't start out tasting like beer and stays in these barrels for many years.

 

Lately, I've seen a few Gin barrel beers that have been very interesting. There's also quite a few wine barrel - Pinot and Chardonnay mostly - that have been good as well. And I've seen two brewers using Aquavit barrels, too...

 

Voodoo's newest release included beers aged in tequila barrels, rum barrels, and bourbon barrels.

 

I hope this isn't off topic, but I heard there was a company buying up a huge amount of the used bourbon barrels from popular distilleries. I also heard that there are contracts involved that require the distilleries to only sell their used barrels to this company or small group of companies. Does anyone know where i could find more information on this?

 

I love wine barrel wild saisons. The gin barrel cucumber saison from wicked weed was awesome imho.

 

plenty of wine barrels available here in California. I prefer beer with wine influences (Supplication) and don't like a little beer with my whiskey like most whiskey barrel beers.

 

It may not have happened as quickly since other barrels are a little less accessible, but it would have happened regardless. As far as bourbon barrels producing the best beers I'd have to disagree. While I love a good Bourbon BA beer, Apple Brandy barrels do incredible things to stouts, and wine barrels are great for wilds/saisons/some stouts.

 

The consumption of Bourbon is a lagging indicator. Your predicting a market any where from 2 to 20+ years in advance, the demanded may not necessarily truly reflect the production until years down the road if ever, particularly with specialty offerings. Leaving the potential for the demand of barrels to surpass supply.

 

Rum , bourbon , wine , sherry , I can live with. No tequila pls! I will say that I feel the main factor here is the quality of the beer going in. I don't think that a beer that some don't like will become well liked if aged in barrels. To answer the question though , beer can make it without kentucky , has for centuries.