Typical Barrel Aging Protocol

A lot, (the best ones at least IMO), of breweries brew a batch specifically designated for barrel aging, not just use that year's base and put it in barrels. Perfect example would be Goose Island. The base stout for BCBS is pretty bad, but it's brewed specifically to be perfected by the additions from the barrel aging

 

Wow kinda complicated question to answer, but the little I know is that it is a brewery's own ideas about things that creates whatever they put into the barrel.

I don't know answers specifically for Dark Lord, but I have read that there is some variation of final gravity between different vintages, so it could be that the recipe varies. Some, like Abyss, have a different recipe and IIRC even different barrels for each vintage. And there is the solera method for barreling, which uses some of previous vintages in its new worts added to barrels, i.e. "Solera is a process for aging liquids such as wine, beer, vinegar, and brandy, by fractional blending in such a way that the finished product is a mixture of ages, with the average age gradually increasing as the process continues over many years."

I expect more knowledgeable folks than me will chime in with better info.

 

I guess it depends on the brewery. Brooklyn uses Black Chocolate Stout to make Black Ops. Sierra uses Narwhal to make BBA Narwhal. Founders does not use it's Imperial Stout to make KBS.

 

Nor do they use their Breakfast Stout (which I have a feeling that you meant to say) for the KBS. It is a beer specifically brewed for KBS that is put into the barrels.

Arcadia brews a Baltic Porter for use in their BBA Shipwreck Porter rather than using their London Porter.

I'm in agreement with the comments above that the base beer probably varies with the brewer, but I'm guessing that the most successful ones are a specially brewed option that goes into the barrel.

 

If you think Night Stalker is "bad", you have pretty high standards for Imperial Stouts.

 

Not sure I follow. It sounds like you think breweries like to tie up expensive stainless steel with a liquid whose time and value for the brewery is better spent sitting in a barrel.
I have racked a few barrel aged beers in my time so I can tell you what that protocol has been.
The beer that goes into barrels is brewed a couple weeks before the barrels arrive. Some breweries make a specific beer for their barrel aging program. Others don't. Like anything brewery related. It can change. A new ingredient can come around. Gravity can come in higher, or lower. New equipment could have been installed. It just depends on what happened, and what's around.
Ideally... Regardless of the recipe, it should be timed so the day the barrels arrive, that beer is in a bright tank and ready to be racked into them. All the brewery staff has to do is play a mean game of forklift tetris with them.

 

Someone can correct me if I am wrong but Nightstalker is not BCBS base beer.

 

It certainly used to be. They could be using a different recipe as of late.

 

From what I do know regarding dark lord, I think any brewery would be hard pressed to duplicate results year to year with the same recipe. BYO magazine had an article about cloning the beer, and from a homebrew perspective I am impressed with anyone brave enough to try. The beer needs to be cared for like a newborn baby, fed and burped even. I can't see a recipe change so much as dumb luck creating differences in vintages.

 

"Night Stalker, as an homage to the Chicago-based television show. Night Stalker is a jet black, dry hopped Imperial Stout, extremely rich and full flavored with malt and chocolate followed by a bright dry hopped aroma. It is the same base as our Bourbon County Stout, but instead of aging in Bourbon barrels, we dry hop it like madmen. ABV – 11.7% IBU’s – 60 Color – 100 Aroma Hops –Mt. Hood & Simcoe Malts – 2-Row, Munich, Chocolate, C-60, Roast Barley, Debittered Black"

 

Yeah they both have the same base beer, but Night Stalker isn't the base for Bourbon County. It's been posted a few times they have put the base on tap at Clybourn, and folks have posted they didn't care for it, similarly to the person to whom you replied originally stated. Not trying to be a nit picker, but if we are gonna go for accuracy, we should. Agreed?

And again if I am wrong someone please shut me down here.

 

Agreed. Night Stalker is the base for BCBS PLUS a dry hop.

 

From what I've see in prior threads the base stout is cook county stout, and its not very good prior to barreling

 

Kind of an odd choice to compare Imperial Stout to KBS instead of just comparing Breakfast Stout to KBS. Regardless, BS is still not the base for KBS.

 

Why do you think that's odd? The other examples that I used are examples of BBA stout made from the breweries Imperial Stout. KBS is an example of one that isn't.

 

This years barrel aged Expedition was awesome. Amazing what the barrel did to the base beer

 

I believe you are correct.

I know someone that works in the beer industry and claimed they went to an industry thing at goose island. Said they were given samples of cook county stout and bcbs at different ages in the barrels. Also said Cook county is supposedly awful without any barrel or hop treatment.

 

Well... okay, sure, haha, but for those who might not understand your humor, the below is the correct answer.

Thanks was too lazy to look up the name.