Bruery 2017 RS/HS Allocations

Amount soaked into the wood is not nominal. Not sure if this is still the practice, but Bruery used to put their beer into wet barrels instead of emptying them. This could be multiple cups of bourbon left in there. Your other assumptions are just flat bad. There are different evaporation rates for a multitude of reasons, but all things being the same, Hoppedelic's explanation would be closer to what is actually going on.

Sorry if that came out harsh, not trying to sound like a dick, lol

 

Stone says otherwise.

http://www.stonebrewing.com/blog/mi...ii-original-wine-spirit-flavors#ageGatePassed

About 3% of the volume of the base spirit that comes out of the barrel before re-filling is left behind. Since bourbon typically comes out of barrels at about 125 proof (62.5% ABV), a very small remnant can very easily add 3% ABV to a barrel-aged brew. Wine barrels will usually contain native wild yeasts that will cause re-fermentation to occur in the barrel. It is very common for us to keep up a 2% alcohol increase in our wine barrel-aged beers between the time they are racked to barrel and the time they are racked back out.

 

You're only a dick if you're wrong Seriously though, I am interested in learning the science... If indeed the absorbed booze does impart ABV, then what happens with new oak barrels (again thinking of Sucre variants)?

I've always heard of the "angels share" is really just quaint evaporation... Is that evaporation a net zero effect to ABV?

@Original_Fake do you think that means "angels share" is actually absorption into the barrel rather than evaporation?

 

What happens to new barrels? They pull more liquid than used barrels.

Angels share is what evaporates off, in hotter places this is more alcohol, in cooler places, it's more water. Whether the liquid inside gets more or less alcoholic is the inverse of this factor. I'm sure the Bruery keeps their barrels cool, so it would be water that is evaporating.

Also, the liquid that gets taken up by the barrel? That has a name too, it's known as the "Devils' Cut"

(Warning, I am not a professional distiller, all knowledge obtained through home-brewing and google searches)

 

I believe what's absorbed into the barrel is referred to as the devils cut.

 

Angel's Share = % lost due to evaporation when aged in a cask
Devil's Share = % lost due to absorption when aged in a cask (or Devils "Cut")
Sewer Rat Share = drain pours of Rest, SHIT 16', Burley Gourd, etc.

 

I agree that Yount was very enjoyable. Hard to get the BT, which is what I think they were going for. I thought it would be like a Wineification or Vindication, but if I closed my eyes, I would think I'm drinking a wine.

BT Port is something I need to give another chance. The color was very brown and translucent. It had less of a Port profile IMHO, but almost a Sherry wine. I had to question I was drinking the right thing, but the taster couldn't have been anything else.

 

Lets talk real Angel's Share of the good stuff! Pappy 23 year bourbon starts with 53 gallons at 114 proof . What makes it into bottles in a typical 23 year old barrel is a yield of about 14 gallons with another 1-2 gallons lost during bottling at 135-140 proof leaving 12-13 gallons of pure gold.

 

But did you like the BT Port?

 

When I say I need to give it another chance, that is my way of saying, "No, but I acknowledge that there could be other factors that contributed to it." LOL. Not sure if some of the other tasters I had (M11, Jurassic Gose, Chron 18) could have set my palette up for disaster by the time I got to the BT Port. Right now, I would have to say this would be my least favorite BT variant ever bottled. I'm going to try and see if they still have it on tap and give it another go!

 

Yount was good, but.... not better than a good $40 bottle of any of my favorite red wine styles so an easy pass for me.

BT Port I'm on the fence about.

 

I was disappointed with BT Port compared to what I remember from the previous version. I mostly agree with @thetastywort and his thoughts on it. For me, it was the first taster of the day for me, and I also had that same reaction of "wait, is this BT Port or something else?" It tasted more like Vindictive than BT Port in my opinion.

My only other tasters were Yount and Train to Beersel so it was pretty obvious which beer was which.

 

Beersel so damn good.

I hope it's remade in future (I know current batch still available).

 

I just realized that BT wasn't included in this year's reserve membership. Is that normal?

 

Hoping to see more reviews on BT Port.

So far it appears it's not the beer everyone hoped for and expected.

 

oh fuck this is the last thing i wanted to hear

 

Specifically tried Port BT first yesterday, and I enjoyed it a lot. I won't be able to give you a very eloquent review, but the sweetness from the port was great I think. I didn't feel like it had any real heat on it, and it hit the mark for what I was looking for from this beer. Definitely interested to see how my bottles develop over the next few years.

 

It's the other way around. Cooler barrels bleed off more alcohol while hotter barrels evaporate more water. This is most evident if we compare Scotch to bourbon where we have a marked difference in climate. Cask strength scotch is often south of 125 proof. Glenlivet Nadurra 16 was in the teens and Laphroaig 10 is around 110. On the other hand things like Bookers, Stagg Jr, and William Larue Weller are always north of 125. The biggest problem they have with ultra aged single malt is having what is left in the barrel still be high enough in proof to bottle as scotch.

I would still expect to see some evaporation in the barrels but given the short timeframe and the lower amount of alcohol and other volatiles it probably isn't as significant. A cool warehouse would also help to reduce the amount of evaporation. Some spirit trapped in the wood will make its way out into the beer even if you steam the barrel since the steam isn't displacing all of the spirit. In a fresh barrel the amount of trapped spirit is also enough to give you a product that used to be known as 'swish whiskey' before Jim Beam decided to market it as 'Devil's Cut.'

I would expect most of the ABV bump to come from residual spirit but there may be some other forces at play as well.

It didn't really have a name until the marketing folks at Jim Beam got their hands on it. Before then they probably chalked it up as loss and as part of the angel's share. they know how much spirit they put in and they know the yield when they dump it. They normally just use that to calculate the loss due to evaporation.

 

I feel the same way. Vindictive, Wineification and Yount (yet to be tasted) seem like great experimental beers that everyone should sample so the can say "yeah... that was unique." However, if I am going to spend $40 on something that tastes like wine, give me wine.

 

You will receive 2 bottles of Black Tuesday Port, which are now available based on the invoice I received on 12/4/17. If you wanted regular BT, those bottles could have been purchased a few weeks ago.