Barrel Aged or Nah

A year ago I would have said Barrel Aged. Now, brewers are making stouts just as good if not better without the barrel treatment (Good Morning). They are also cheaper and made more often when they are not barrel aged.

 

I'm over barrel aged stouts. There are too many and most of them are incredibly average but hit you over the head with flavor. When I started seeing shaky nanos pushing them I knew it was time to move on.

 

barrel aged all day erry day but I've had some very bad BA stouts and amazing non BA stouts

 

I think it's safe to say people prefer barrel aged beers, I mean look at this past Friday with all the people buying BCBS.

 

I voted barrel, but it depends on the beer. For instance, I like Abraxas better than BA Abraxas. I think the regular stout is packed with so many flavoring notes that it didn't need the barrel taste added in. I like BA too, but I felt regular was right on point.

 

In general: BA all day, every day.

 

Barrel Aged tends to be either very well done or very poorly done, so I generally stick wth non-barrel unless the barrel age in question is a time proven commodity or locally brewed and very affordable. I have heard enough about Abita Bourbon Street series that I might try one of them, but my barrel aged stock is purposely low right now.

 

Oh, sorry. Shaky as in "of questionable quality" nanobreweries. Those are the really small places that are brewing on a very, very tiny scale. Some are borderline homebrew vendors. That isn't inherently bad. However if their quality isn't up to snuff, it becomes eye-roll worthy.

 

I feel the same way. I still enjoy them now and again from my stock but I don't buy them anymore. For me they have pretty much jumped the shark. The ONLY BBA beer I would buy if I were to see again is KBS, but that one is pretty much a whalez anymore.

 

Barrel Aged. I fuck with it.

 

I prefer the non BA stouts, some of the BA stouts are straight up garbage. Just because you could doesnt mean you should in some cases

 

I don't think just any beer put in barrels and left to sit will make a good beer or a good beer better. BA brews have been some of the best and some of the worst beers I've had. I would say overall I prefer non BA stuff but something like BCBS or Backwoods B*****d is really good.

 

Haven't had a BA stout yet. I don't recall even seeing any, as of yet, believe it or not. Western ND always takes it's sweet time catching up to the rest of the country with many things.

 

I still buy Parabola and Legend of the Liquid Brain (a local one) whenever I see them, but that's pretty much it. I think those two are the pinnacle of the idea and I don't need to mess with the others. I bought some of the pretty highly regarded BA Ten Fidy a few weeks ago and I think I realized that I was over the concept right then. People were fiending over that stuff and I was bored after 1/2 a glass. Ditto with all of the Goose Island madness this weekend.
On the other hand, man I love Czar, Yeti, and the like...

 

Generally, I like the flavor of bbl stouts more than regular. That said, there are some versions where the non bbl is better. I like to try the non-bbl version first, then go to the barrel aged. For instance, Prairie Bomb is better imo that the bbl version, then you have stouts like Olde Hickory's Imperial Stout which is absolutely delicious, but the bbl version (Event Horizon) is next level, with that bbl oak/vanilla/subtle bourbon kick making it one of the best stouts out there.

 

Hard question, because at times I prefer both. I think in general most of the time I prefer a good stout that isn't barrel aged, and on occasion I like to get that bourbon or other oak barrel taste.

 

i picked not. i love the thread title haha