Bourbon County Barleywine

Never had the chance to try KH so this news is very exciting to me. Hopefully if this is successful in keg only form it will move to bottles at some point. Four packs would be ideal. Two to drink fresh and two to age.

 

This thread is boring as hell. Can we talk about GI Barleywine again?

 

1. Yes Goose uses Heaven Hill Barrels for BCS. But their supply has been maxing out
2. This doesn't really apply since Goose specs out 10-13 year barrels for BCS. So a EC18 barrel wouldn't be purchased for use in aging BCS.
4. The wheated whiskey BCS (Rebel Yell) came out too hot so it was blended into the 2012 BCS (3-4% IIRC)
5. Laffler had said that the Pappy 23 barrels are ultra premium construction and wood. Although, they were 23 years old had were considerably more "aged" than others that come in.


Bottom line. In the case of BCS the barrels do matter. But more so with the age of the whiskey than specific brands. But MORE important is the design of the base beer and process for the aging. MOST important is the skill of the man blending the batches so that the beer is released as intended.

Since Goose release a shit ton more BCS than most barrel aged beers, they have the ability to blend things like low storage, high storage, different parts of the warehouse, etc to make the beer the best it can be. Most smaller brewers don't have that luxury or skill, whatever goes in the barrels gets dumped together and bottled.

 

Laffler admitted as much in FOBAB documentary video. He said roughly that he asked Siebel if they would do classes for barrel aging beers and they said no. His quote was roughly the only place to learn this stuff is to go intern for Jean Van Roy at Cantillon or Armand at Drie Fontainen.

 

I respectfully disagree, Eclipse variants do not all taste the same or have the same characteristics to varying degrees. Old Fitz and Mellow Corn were a markedly different product.

Did you use an actual used bourbon barrel or soaked oak chips/spirals?

 

Soaked spirals, but that goes with the discussion- it is the wood of the barrels that gives the flavor, not necessarily the spirits themselves. Put Old Crow in a good barrel and you have a better product. Essentially people should be looking to the quality of the cooperage of barrels, not the name brand of the spirit that used it.

 

What?
No.
I would say Old Crow is much more a result of only 3 years of aging. Leave it in the barrel for 18 years and you have a completely different brand. Age is more important than the unused barrel it is being placed in in the case of bourbon.

 

I agree, and pretty much what I'm trying to say

 

Your last post read to me more as it is the quality of the new oak barrel itself is the more important determinant of bourbon quality.

 

against my better judgment i'm going to chime one last time.

1. some intelligent people agreed that a long aged barrel typically indicates superior construction & performance.
2. other intelligent people indicated the age a barrel survives to, appears to have an effect on barrel aged beer.
3. most intelligent people indicated the brand is irrelevant.

while i know most gents think otherwise, 1 & 2 only spotlight the fact that the brand is relevant. the reason being is simple - there's only 1 f'n bourbon brand that has a regularly scheduled 23 year old, it's the same lonely brand that has the only regularly scheduled 20 year old bourbon that comes to mind. with Elijah 18 off the map, it's possibly the only bourbon brand that has a regularly scheduled 15 year old. you can't get more brand specific or brand relevance than that.

i waited & found it funny nobody asked the guy that paraphrased Laffler if he had any proof or pie charts & shit.

 

George T Stagg is an annually released 15 year, would love to see some stout aged in those barrels.

 

It will be interesting to see what happens next year with PVW 20yr. The last fall release and upcoming spring release have been from 1991 Old Fitzgerald barrels. I think old fitz was sold to Heaven Hill in 1992. I'm not sure what barrels Buffalo Trace uses for PVW 15yr.

 

Delicious ones.

 

Looks like this will be a regional April release (h/t to mdomask for posting this in the Great Lakes forum):

http://www.gooseisland.com/pages/home/327.php

 

Hopefully the same regions that gets the other regional releases will also get this

 

Yah I bet some podunk bar in the middle of BFE Upper Michigan will get a huge allocation

 

Fixed that up a little for you.

 

It could be an excellent beer, I guess we'll have to wait and see. I liked the coffee, the vanilla, I wasn't a fan. I still need to crack my Bramble sometime in the near future.

 

April? Awesome!!!!

Anybody else think that the pictures we saw in October of barrels being filled with barleywine are deceiving??
If they were only then filling barrels for this April release, the beer would only be in the barrel for 6months.

I would bet they've had this in barrels for perhaps more than a year now?

 

I know the old BCBS bottles stated "Aged in barrels for 100 days" or something along those lines...so 6 months isn't surprising.