Non Bourbon Barrel Aged Stouts

I'm a bourbon aged guy myself, but I definitely like to crack open a straight up imperial stout every once in a while.

 

I quite enjoy a nice clean dry stout, but nowadays that´s so hard to find, everything has adjuncts and spices.

 

I must be a little buzzed...but...i"m not really sure what you said....

 

I agree completely that BBA tends to overpower the actual beer often times. I've asked some brewers and they say that because bourbon barrels are traditionally only used once by a distiller that they are much cheaper and easier to get than most other spirits. Have gotten to try a Rum aged that was really good though. Just last night I tried a mint chocolate stout that was rather damn amazing. Good ol' fashioned stouts are out there for the dozen or so of us who still like them.

 

Yeti. I cracked one open the other day for the first time in a while. I knew it was good, but my hiatus made me forget how truly delicious it really is. No adjuncts, no barrel treatment, just delicious.

 

BBA is such a hot topic the last couple of years everybody is shoving everything into a bourbon barrel. That said, my favorite beers are big stouts that typically spend time in a barrel.

I had a couple Guinness last weekend and was crushed by the ideal stout I had from drinking for 15 years. Have I been ruined? No, I think I just like more of a mouth feel and a rollercoaster of a flavor profile.

As far as the sweetness you are experiencing with RIS and Double/Imerpial stouts.... I think that is to be expected. That's what I like about those styles....all those dark roasted malted barley, some how stuffed into that super saturated water. You are making me thirsty.

But to answer your question....I'll try anything and am intrigued by aging in other barrels. But I do love my vanilla RIS or double stout, barrel free.

cheers

 

Founders Imperial Stout, Old Rasputin & 10 Fidy are a few of the many great non BA stouts that can rival any great BA stout.

 

I'd take a quality 5% abv dry stout or oatmeal stout over a BBA stout any day of the week.

 

What was your question again?

 

OP wants variations of Aged Stouts, when really he should be enjoying the bada** non BA at a deep $$ discount like we all should be . BA stouts are starting to get stupid expensive...

 

Ah! OK... yes, I agree to an extent... I love me a good bourbon-barrel stout, no doubt. But between an average BA-stout and a mighty-good regular imperial stout, I'm going with the "regular".

Founders Imp Stout and Oskar Ten Fidy are my two favorites, but also Bell's Expedition, Stone RIS/IRS, Cigar City Marshal Zhukov, any of the Southern Tier variants...

Heck, even the massive, 17% Avery Mephistopheles is a non-barrel stout!

 

Damn right. Brandy, tequila, mezcal, Pedro Ximenez, Malaga, Fernet Branca... there are plenty of cool barrels out there waiting to be used...

 

Affordable and tasty, Ten Fidy & Narwhal got me thru the tough CA winter. I agree about other barrels, i really enjoyed the HF Daybreak, orange liquor barrel stout. Never had it but Pirate Bomb sounds fantastic.

 

Lagunitas Cappucino Stout and Modern Times Blackhouse stout are two of my favorite Non-BBA stouts.

 

A well made Imperial/Double stout is a thing to behold. You can throw any old garbage into a barrel, and it'll still be garbage when it's removed from the barrel. However, if you have a solid base beer, barrel aging can do wonders. Some of the really good stouts I can think of are Speedway, Founders Breakfast, Hunahpu, Darkness, Earl, Odin's Raven, Sunny Side Up, Serpent's Stout, Mephistopheles' Stout, Old Viscosity, Big Black Voodoo Daddy, Abraxas, Sump Coffee Stout, Yeti, Plead the 5th, to name a few. What's more, you put any one of these beers in a barrel, it adds layers and character to the beer, and many times, it becomes infinitely better.

 

Dark Apparition