Breweries naming which bourbon brand they source for barrel aging

Not quite. While a bottle of Bourbon is usually filled from a vat in which several barrels of Bourbon have been blended before bottling to suit the the blender's taste target, the term "Blended Whiskey" has a different meaning.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blended_whiskey

 

Looks like the difference isn't blending as I thought but Bourbon is made from corn and aged in charred barrels, where Whiskey is made from a grain mash and aged in charred barrels. I love this forum!

 

Which again could mean almost anything since most what what High West bottles isn't produced or aged there.

 

Yeah the rules to be able to call it Bourbon are pretty tight. Mash of at least 51% Corn (after that other grains can be and often are used, e.g., wheat and rye are quite common) along with those brand new charred barrels which can not be reused, along with a few other niceties.

 

Exactly. Angel's Envy buy's whiskey and then put's them in different barrel's. I like the name "Finished Bourbons".

Cheers!

 

It probably doesn't change the taste very much. But if they advertise using a bourbon that I'm a fan of, I'll probably subconsciously grade it higher.

 

Mostly marketing.

I tell myself that I can distinguish between a beer thats been aged in rye whiskey barrels and a beer aged in Scotch barrels and a beer aged in corn whiskey. Spice versus smoke versus sweetness, respectively.

But if I were to hold a blind tasting and put a Whistle Pig aged beer up against an Old Crow aged beer, I suspect I'd be damned if I could distinguish the two.

 

Interesting thoughts so far.. So is the new Bourbon County "Rare" commanding its $60/bottle price tag because of the barrels (Pappy, right?) or the 3 years (correct me if that's wrong) aging in said barrels?

 

You know this is really not that far fetched of something we may see in the future..

 

Oh I know. Coors too. Can't wait for their deep voiced manly man narrator to tell us all how manly it is to drink mountain water aged in barrels.

 

Abita's bourbon barrel stout is aged in Pappy barrels and it's kind of shitty by most BBA stout standards. I've had great BBA stout aged in Heavens Hill barrels. As said before, it's all about the base beers and the length of aging that makes the beer, not the brand of barrels.

 

Original Rare was Pappy but 2015 Rare is 35 yr old Heaven Hill
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/1146/184058/

 

Bottle Logic's Fundamental Observation is actually a blend of 4 different bourbon barrel aged beers. Before it was blended and released, they had Bernheim, Four Roses, Heaven Hill, and Buffalo Trace versions on tap. I could definitely taste the difference between the barrels.

 

this. if you've ever had the same base beer bottled from different barrel types/brands you can realize differences. whether those differences move the same beer from 1 being very likable to the other being very unlikable is... unlikely. a good base combined with a good program, generally = good results, consistently.

but also recognize. certain *brand names* often also equate to specific quality levels of the actual vessel (barrel) itself.
someone said put Pappy or Elijah Craig on it & the price increases. the truth is those barrels wouldn't survive to be those specific brand names if the barrels (down to the raw wood & original cooperage) didn't have the integrity to withstand the ages & results those brand names dictate.

i think some brewers understand this, it's highly unlikely a "Pappy" or "Elijah Craig" barrel would be a leaky, poorly constructed barrel. in most cases, such a barrel would be pulled earlier & bottled as a lesser brand or other purpose.

logically, Pappy/Elijah barrels would cost more than random nondescript barrels because beyond their branding recognition, they've costed the distiller more time & energy. AND in order for the brewer to truly have a batch or shipment of a specific brand, the distiller has to have physically trapped those emptied barrels & set them aside as a lot for the brewer to receive. more time & $$$.

 

At a beer fest there were 2 water coolers. One said free water. The other said barrel aged water $10.

 

Barrels are pretty much barrels - there's only a couple of coopers the the US, and I don't think that the people making them know ahead of time where they are going. Likewise, the distiller doesn't know if it's a "leaky or poorly constructed" barrel at the time they are filled, which is when they're designated for whatever expression (responding to Highbrow above)
I do know and understand that every bourbon will taste different, and a single-barrel one, each barrel does taste different.
However, in the scale that most breweries age and bottle, there really isn't a huge difference. I may be able to tell Pappy Van Winkle from a Jack Daniels if I have it straight, but if beer is aged in those barrels, the differences are shrunk by magnitudes.
That said, if a brewery gets Pappy, or other high-name barrels, they're sure going to advertise it.

 

We already had a labatt beer in barrels that tasted like burned hair.