barrel aged - which barrel?

Because its virtually moot since barrels vary in quality, char rating, and the different whisk(e)ys that are made out of them per distiller.

Unless they want to promote something obvious and rare to acknowledge it (ie. Pappy Van Winkle), then they are more than likely just going to give a general answer (is from bourbon barrels.. etc.)

 

1) doesn't really matter, due to what smakawhat said above, and 2) supposedly it's frowned upon / draws (dubious?) legal attention from some bourbon brands.

 

Most people don't really care.

 

Sort of like how most people don't care to know what hops are used? We're talking about beer geeks, not fucking Bud Light drinkers. Obviously people do care, since the question is being asked.

All beer tastes the same, right? I hate thinking about stuff.

 

It could possibly just be a matter of sourcing. It's probably cheaper to use non specific barrels rather than brand named ones ( unless the company is providing the barrels for free). Many of the bourbon barrels are already spoken for by scotch distilleries, so I would imagine sourcing a brand name barrel not in immediate proximity could prove to be overly expensive.

 

Hops are a lot easier to ship than barrels and the flavor which an already used barrel imparts will not be nearly significant as the hop quality or variety.

 

Obviously. I'm taking issue with the flippant response rather than lack of specific information regarding barrels coming from breweries. The reasons you and others gave are valid.
"Because most people don't care," not so much.

 

So angry... lol, it's beer, grab one and lighten the tone

I think that overall, what decides the quality of a barrel aged beer is 99% (a) the quality of base beer including ingredients, process, handling, etc (b) maintenance of barrels, including prepping, storage, topping off, etc and (c) blending of matured barrel aged beer. I think the brand of spirit is a relatively insignificant detail. I could be wrong, but this is my impression from my readings and conversations with brewers.

 

Gotta disagree with that, at least in the extreme cases... i.e. every single beer with PvW preluding it.

 

I agree 100% with this assessment. I know that there are some bourbon geeks around here but I'd wager that many of us can't really tell the difference between two quality bourbons. Logic would then dictate that the subtle differences between a good bourbon and a great bourbon would be completely lost when trying to detect them in a beer aged in their barrel. Also, I know people go nuts for PvW barrel stuff but I doubt they can really tell the difference.

Edit-to add on. Further to my point I can't imagine that anyone with a bottle of PvW would advocate mixing it with coke because it kills all the flavors that make the spirit unique. I think the same argument could made (but even stronger) that the much smaller amount the beer picks up is also diluted by the beer.

 

It's somewhat easy to find that info. BCS uses a lot of Heaven Hill barrels I believe. Stranahan's actually banned the use of their names on beer labels recently. Other times there are so many different barrels being blended that it makes no sense to list them all.

 

The beauty of a great barrel aged beer is that it takes that much more skill and precision to make it great. I think a common misconception is that any beer thrown in barrels turns out good, but in reality a well brewed base beer aged in lower quality spirit barrels will trump a poor brewed base beer aged in Pappy barrels.

 

And I am one of those. I just don't give a fuck what barrel it's aged in, and I'm sure as hell not going to stand in line for hours on end to get a bottle of something that was aged in Pappy van Winkle barrels. If it's barrel aged and it tastes good that's all I'm after, unlike what seems like the majority of people on this site who seem to have a stick up their ass if a beer isn't aged in a certain barrel style from a certain distiller.

 

Said by the man with no BA PvW heh jk
Actually you are right but no different than any "branding"

 

Damn, you outed me… I actually haven't ever had a BA PvW and while I stand by my point I'd so gladly take one. It'd be for science and not personal satisfaction, clearly.

 

I said most people, including beer drinkers. A handful of interested people in a minority is not most people. Now chill the fuck out and have a bud light.

 

There are already good answers here but whether you like Fifty/Fifty Eclipse or not, buying the different versions (aged in different Bourbon and Whiskey barrels but the same base Stout) shows there can be a significant taste difference from using barrels that are the same type of spirit but from different distillers.

 

Good point! I'm assuming they use the same base beer in all of those variants, correct? I haven't had the chance to try them all, but I'm sure a horizontal of all of them would give you a good idea of what barrel(s) may appeal to your palate.

 

Yes - they use the same base beer. Somebody had the base at Darkness Day. It was quite, ummm, basic.