Barrel Aged

Initial thoughts, no. Putting it in a barrel doesn't change the style. However, as always, open to being persuaded to change my mind.

 

I agree with @cyclonece09 in that I don't think putting it in a barrel changes the style. When there's breweries who barrel age imperial stouts, porters, red ales and saisons (among other styles), I don't think it would be fair to put all barrel aged brews in just one category. I'd prefer if people would note that it's a barrel aged beer (and what kind of barrel/s were used to age it in) when adding it to BA, or putting it in the notes.

 

And it was kind of terrible.

...well maybe not that bad.

That said, I recently realized a vast majority of my highest rated beers consumed this year were all barrel aged beers, whether oak aged sours or whiskey barrel aged stouts. While I personally know them by recognizing their names, they aren't distinguishable or sortable in any other way to separate them from the non-ba beers.

At this point I'm in no mental state to suggest one way or the other, but I do think it's worth noting. Some people, including a younger version of myself, hate BA variations of many or most beers.

 

At this point in time, I believe a barrel variation of any given beer should be a different entry. That should allow for different ratings of a straight beer vs barrel aged variant (or different types of barrels). Wouldn't be opposed for a modification to Beer Stats to indicate if barrel aged or not, may help with your sorting issue. However, that probably is a much bigger update to the website that I have no idea how much work it would be.

 

It's an interesting idea for sure, but I think it would cause more problems than solutions. I'll agree that there can be a very different drinking experience between a straight forward imperial stout and on that's seen the inside of a barrel. And it would be kinda fun to be able to quickly see what the best of each category would be. However, at the heart of the issue, the base beer style is the same. I'd treat the barrel as any other adjunct and move on. If we don't have a "Coffee Beer" category, which I am by no means advocating for, distinguishing between barrel aged and non-barrel aged shouldn't be necessary. Once you dive down that worm hole you begin to question if they need to be further broken down by type of barrel (bourbon, rum, wine, oak...).

 

I would like to see this as a different style. The quality of the underlying stout may be improved by the barrel aging, or get lost by the barrel aging. In some cases, I've had very different beers before and after the barrel aging process. Defining this style though could be quite tricky given the range of barrels out there.

 

This can be handled by having two different beer listings, i.e. "X Beer" which is the normal imperial stout beer recipe and "Barrel Aged X Beer" which is the barrel aged imperial stout variant. This will allow you to rate/review the differences of the barrel, while respecting that throwing it in a barrel does not change the fact that both beers are Imperial Stouts.

 

But it's just not stouts that are barrel aged. I realize that barrel aging changes a beer, but I'm not a fan of having a single barrel aged category because where do you draw the line at? Do you make separate categories for barrel aged stouts, porters, saisons, wee heavys, etc? With how many beers are barrel aged nowadays, you could have a case to add an extra barrel aged category for almost every style. And then you could have an extra category for bourbon, scotch, cognac, tequila, gin and whatever other barrels too. Where does it end? I'd just prefer if people would put the barrel in either the names of the beer (in cases where it's a variant) or in the notes of the beer (in cases where the beer is a separate brew but barrel aged) so people know it's different.

 

All fair comments about where to draw the line, and, how it may be impossible to do so. I was thinking of solely barrel aged styles for American Imperial Stouts when I posted but yes, given how many beers can be barrel aged maybe it's a futile exercise. I suppose you could indeed fragment it down to barrel aging by barrel type (wine (and all types of wine), bourbon, scotch, gin, rum, brandy, etc.), but then defining said styles would be nearly impossible since it's all over the map. But I still feel that Barrel-Aged American Imperial Stouts ought to be their own category.

 

Think of Blithering Idiot vs. Insanity.

Would it be possible to add a radio button, the the review, for styles that have barrel aged varieties? Then we can avoid the proliferation of styles, and still have the ability to distinguish and sort for barrel aged variants. The style description could include guidance for how to address the concern.

And by the way, the same concept could be applied to other nuanced styles.

 

Radio button to note barrel aged, or just edit the title of the beer so it says BA. It may take a lot of admin work by members and moderators but just another idea if we want to see a notation as to whether the beer has been put in a barrel or not without having to read each narrative description (if there is one included).

 

Good point about the level of difficulty. I see the idea as perhaps just a check box that flags the beer, and allows a data point for searches. We should be considerate of level of difficulty, and still embrace challenges.

Meanwhile, some instruction about including ( Barrel Aged ) or ( High ABV ) would mitigate the concern. Still, these beers can be expected to have different characteristics which may or may not be obvious to the reviewer. This can be accommodated with a sentence added to the style description.

On another note, and I may be a contingent of one here, "Imperial" implies more than just high alcohol. I think it can be applied to any outrageous signature characteristic of a specific style. e.g. IBU, or Funk, or Sour, or density (think of the density and slickness of many fruited sours).

 

I don't mind at all the way they are listed now, under the appropriate style, but definitely should be listed as BBA if noted on the label.

Cheers!