Recent Quality Control

Mitch Steele of Stone has a great blog, http://hoptripper.com. His last two posts have been discussing this very topic.

 

You people who love authenticity all have giant boners for Live Oak, right? It's not too big a deal to me, but I also love them. I really miss being able to get Hefe on tap .

 

Yeah, just the barrel aging part. I know you were kidding, but it seems like every other beer is being barrel aged right now. For some it works and actually improves things (sours are typically a good example of this) but for a lot it does nothing.

"Authenticity" is less important, unless you're specifically looking for a perfect example of a style. I'm a big fan of experimentation, just in more interesting ways than dumping beer in a barrel

 

Bingo. My philosophy behind craft beer as a whole is summed up by Shaun Hill in his Vanity Fair interview:

 

This makes me think of Fort Bend, apparently they had to recall all their bottles from stores because they were exploding! Heard this about Leprechaun too actually. Not good.

 

I don't think it is up to the consumer to drive quality control, that should be up to the manufacturer. From the consumer stand point the only way for us to drive quality is to stop buying their product.

As far as barrel aging goes I don't think its a fad per se since originally all beers were brewed in barrels; however, I do think that it is used often when it shouldn't because we demand that all beers be put into barrels even if they shouldn't. Look no further then BA Gumballhead.

 

One local exception to this is Real Heavy which is a mediocre Scotch Ale, but after barrel aging in a wine barrel its fantastic as The Highlander or adding some sour bugs and its even better as Scots Gone Wild! Real Ale has always had the premier barrel aging program in Texas and its not really close. Volume XV is pretty much as good as it bets for BBA Stouts IMO.

Jester King and Freetail have been putting out great sours for a few years now so they should be included as well. Saint Arnold's Bishops Barrel has been a great thing as well and has increased in quality for every release, so I am happy to see where they take it. Although barrel aged beers were not as hard to track down in Houston before St. Arnold did them and I am sure there is something to do with the overall hype.

I was pretty high on Bourbon Barrel Hellfighter the first time I had it on draft at the saucer on the very first batch. All subsequent batches have been a step down and further releases in the "Fun" series have been lacking in quality and overpriced.

 

I've bought two separate sixers of the Backyard Blonde that were actually the Farmhouse Ale. I really want to like these guys and for them to succeed, but they've got to get it together.

 

Like wrong beer in the bottles or wrong bottles in the 6 pack carrier? If wrong beer in the bottles, that sounds like it would be a pretty widespread issue

 

It's the Bourbon barrel aged stuff that's getting old, not so much barrel aging in general.

 

Hell yeah on Volume XV. That stuff is like drinking velvet bed sheets covered with roses.

 

I took so much flak for hyping this up for so many people in Dallas last summer. When it finally made it up to a festival here, there was no contest in choosing between that or (512) 2x Pecan. Have come to learn that barrel aging is a very finicky beast, and those two words won't necessarily mean a beer will be good.

 

Ditto, I need to get my fix for bba stouts every now and then but overall I'm burned out. But...good bba products still have a HUGE niche to fill with the majority of people just getting into craft beer. We (ba's in general) have been drinking bba beers for a long time compared to others.

I can't count how many people I work with, meet at bars, the gym, etc that are casual beer drinkers just getting into craft beer that aren't even familiar with aging anything in bourbon barrels. Most of the time when I give them a bottle of Backwoods, BCBS, BB, etc they love it and want more. Unfortunately, I have to tell them its not that easy to get.

 

Man, the BA trend ain't over till I can pick up a case of BCBS in Texas!

I think it's getting a bit overdone by amateurs who don't know what they're doing, but when it's done correctly, it's still magic.

That said, BA beers are never going to be "everyday" beers.

 

Hellfighter is an interesting one...

When 005 came out it paled in comparison to 003. I didn't detect much barrel and it was a mess of dark fruits.

Now that it has aged a bit, I cracked a bottle and was very impressed with it. It has turned into a much better beer. I'm probably going to age my bottles of 003 and 005 a bit longer as the best BBA Hellfighter I had was out of a 1 year old keg.

Talking about prices of the FUN series is a little tough because it's meant to be experimental (so product will change) and I feel they know that the market is high on barrel aged stuff and are doing a good job of marketing it. It'll probably stay this way until the consumer stops running all over town to score bottles of the newest shiniest thing they can find. This isn't going to happen any time too. Divine Reserve conditioned Houstonians to flip the hell out when a new limited beer was released and it's only gotten worse. Sadly I'm guilty of this as well, but trying to cut back.

Barrel aged beers or not the breweries need to strive for consistency and quality with every beer they make.

 

Wrong beer in the bottles. Labels and carrier said Blonde, beer was farmhouse. Both purchased at the same store, so hopefully limited to one area.

 

The only beer I've had that I thought the base beer was terrible but the barrel aged version was great was Gotlandsdricka/Viking Metal. Gin fixed that shit right up.