512 Whiskey Barrel Aged Double Pecan Porter

Brass tap was kind enough to give me a free sample from a bottle. Not sour. You might be expecting a smoother less bitter beer since its "barrel aged". It spends very short time in the barrel and is not worth the price but I've never had and infected bottle. If you're thinking it's not worth $20 then you're right. If you're thinking its infected you're probably misplacing rough/bitter/"not really barrel aged" for sour. 2-4 months in a barrel is not going to make it taste like many of the delicious barrel aged beers that you're used to.

 

Bulleit Bourbon is made by following the small-batch technique inspired by Augustus Bulleit over 150 years ago. Only the highest quality ingredients are used. Bulleit Bourbon's subtlety and complexity stem from its unique blend of rye, corn and barley malt, along with special strains of yeast. Because Bulleit Bourbon is especially high in rye content, it has a bold and spicy character with a distinctively smooth, clean finish.

Breweries have to be very careful, when they brew sours and introduce new strains of yeast around the brewery !
I'm not saying this is what happened with this beer ? @sethsticlesst said, could be " tart because it was aged in virgin barrels." this could be the case as well ? All I know is that I love 512 pecan porter & every time I have it on tap all the time ! It's one of my Fav. porters & always, very fresh tasting ! So I'm not sure? what that tart , brine taste was in this BA beer from 512 ?

 

Drinking it now over carbed and tart no getting around it on my bottle - it's there.

 

That is definitely not what happened. Yeast doesn't make it past distillation. Even if it did, it couldn't survive in a 40+% alcohol solution inside the barrel.

Your blame, like much of your punctuation, is misplaced.

 

Insert Red Flag right here.

 

I haven't had this beer in a few years, mostly because of the price point wasn't worth it to me, however, I guess I've been lucky because the worst I've ever experienced with their bottles is over carbonation. Having not had this batch I'm wondering if the "tartness" could come from tannins that are accentuated by the fact that this beer finishes pretty dry. I know there is a difference between tannins and acidity, but this seems to keep happening with them and it makes me wonder what their quality process is for before and after releasing bottles.

 

Couldn't even get inb4 "it's the whiskey's fault" or "virgin barrel".

The problem is probably that the barrels were not taken care of after the whiskey was taken out/they arrived at the brewery/they were filled with beer. They get nasty if not taken care of. There's a Houston brewery that could probably shes some light on this but I doubt they'll admit it.

 

I would hope that 512 would know to check their barrels before they put beer into them.

 

We have 4 cases that will go on sale today at 4pm at Jester King. -- Jeff

 

Anybody open a bottle this weekend?

 

It already hit DFW.

 

Kegs and Barrels and Lone Star

 

An aside, I had it on tap in Austin at Craft Pride... thought it was great. Not tart.

 

Drinking one from a bottle right now. Tastes fine to me, will have to try it on tap to see if there's any discrepancies.. There was a flavor I found hard to place at first, not dissimilar to "tartness," but after really spending some time mulling the pour over, I think it's more of a virgin whiskey flavor. Kind of reminds me of a strong whiff of spirits you'd get as a child, it makes your mouth water at the cheeks and burn a bit at the top of the throat.

 

Sounds awful.

 

Reminds me a lot more of whiskey than pecans, that's for sure

 

tart barrels. heard that excuse before.