When beer isn't really beer anymore..

No, No. I mean a bottle of PVW. Not a beer aged in PVW barrels.

 

Not a beer aged in PVW barrels. An actual bottle of PVW bourbon.

 

Ah, I see. I totally agree with you!! Every-time I hear or read "barrel aged IPA" it makes me want to smash my computer with a spiked bat!!

 

ISO: PVW!

 

http://sandiego.craigslist.org/csd/clt/3762463914.html

 

you really know how to fuck with someone's emotions.

 

Email Jan Gillespie at Montgomery County Liquor Control and tell her to add you to their list for special release bourbons. Just remember that if you decide to buy one (let's say one that isn't PVW) you essentially go to the bottom of the list and will probably miss PVW.

 

Round these parts, we calls 'em swimmy fish. As in, "I love shellfish, but you can keep your swimmy fish!"

I'm kind of on the fence on this topic. I've done some additions with my homebrews and sometimes enjoy the results (like adding vanilla-infused bourbon to an RIS). However, I tend to get irked when I hear people going gaga over them at my (not so) local microbrewery. In the conversations I've overheard, folks tend to focus more on the higher abv and the taste of liquor, and in those cases, I think it's more about bragging rights than enjoyment.

Of all of the BA beers I've tried, I've only liked about half of them. The half I didn't like had such overpowering flavors of oak and/or bourbon that I couldn't taste the beer at all. If you're going to BA a beer, it should at least balance with, and not mask, the beer profile. Otherwise, just have the damn bourbon.

 

jesus how many times is this thread going to happen

barrel aged beers don't taste like spirits is why people don't just drink spirits. the biggest bourbon bomb is still 15% vs the 40-60% of a bourbon. bourbon isn't carbonated, bourbon isn't served cold. it takes the same amount of time to drink 2oz of bourbon as it takes to drink 12oz of bourbon barrel beer.

i don't understand the constant complaints about big/innovative beer. if you want to drink a nice clean lager then do it. there is no shortage of them. there is little innovation possible in the style so you don't need any new ones.

 

I'm a jazz musician, and we like to have this very same argument all the time. In fact, I'm sure most disciplines have the same discussion using their respective terminologies. It's the classic old vs. new; simple vs. complex; blah vs. blah. I'm just glad we live in a world with so much amazing variety, where folks can listen-to/drink/love/hate just about anything they want to. America!

 

HAHA, how do they not look like beer? You say they look like wine? Wine isn't carbonated (unless is sparkling wine), Lambics are carbonated. Also, Lambics can be fruited or not fruited. And how the hell does Kuhnhenn fit into this? Most of their stuff is BA stouts, barleywines, old ales, IPAs, ect. haha, you make me laugh so hard!

 

Kind of a strange question. It's human nature to mix things together in order to make something new. We do it in music, cooking, fashion, beer making... When I'm wanting to hear saxophone I put on Cannonball. I don't just turn on a recording of some guy wailing by himself.

 

your question was slightly different than the usual thread that leads to this discussion, but it turned into the same people posting the same shit about big beers vs little beers. i'm sure herrburgess will be around shortly if he hasn't already posted.

i did address your initial question though : )

 

I kind of go both ways on the subject. More and more I'm appreciating a "purist" approach to very well-crafted beer. A clean subtle and elegant lager or even a very traditional textbook example of a historic or well-established style that is so well done and delicious that it stands above the rest. I'm finding myself more drawn to a superb brown rather than a mediocre barrel aged Imperial stout. Or a perfect pale ale as opposed to the the latest limited release whale of a DIPA/IIPA.

I think it's amazing the range of flavors and aromas that brewers can produce using water, yeast, hops, and grain...very carefully selected supplies of each.

All of that said, one of my favorite qualities of the beverage known as beer is how vastly it can vary and how creative its producers can be. I LIKE that sours, bourbon barrel aged stouts, grapefruity IPAs, coffee flavor, chocolate flavor, vanilla, mango, peach, etc etc etc can all be found in beer. So many different techniques, creative adjuncts, and interpretations provide unlimited options. I love that about beer.

I do think that producers and consumers get hung up on fads. Some BBA stouts are great, but just because a stout is BBA it is not automatically a great beer. Right now that's a fad, but people will get over it, and the great ones will stick around. More hops does not necessarily make a better IPA. The whole craft beer culture exploded pretty quick. Many (myself included) are newbs within the last 5-10 years. The beer world is like a new toy. Eventually the novelties will wear off and the quality will remain.

 

What oes it mean to BA a beer?

 

Barrel Age- in general the beer will pick up some of the qualities of what was previously in the barrel, and in the case of Bourbon will also develop additional vanilla and coconut overtones as well.

 

BA = barrel age
BBA = bourbon barrel age

 

Thanks! Does arrogant bastard Oaked count?

 

By the time the Reinheitsgebot had come about hops had already pretty much won out over gruit in Germany. The beer kept longer, was more flavor stable and you could use less malt when making hopped beer. It likely had little to do with any sort of "drug prohibition law."