Separate Entries For Different Barrels?

I love barrel aged beers, but my taste buds ain't what they used to be. If I had beer "A" aged in 20 year years old "Pappy" barrels or beer "A" aged in 4 year old "Heaven Hill" barrels, (Evan Williams), i probably wouldn't know the difference, except the hit to my retirement funds....

 

Me neither, the bourbon influence is there but so minor you’d never be able to tell. It’s an influence here not a dram. If you put a drop of most bourbons on the tongue you’d have no clue which was what. Not counting Islay whiskies of course.

 

Yeah I came here to say this. This is especially rampant with different bourbon barrels. People chase them down because they think it’ll taste exactly like whatever widely acclaimed bourbon was used, when it reality mostly all that changes is the intensity of the barrel character, and even then it’s not too drastic

 

I think the answer should depend on brewer intent.

For releases like Eclipse's 50/50, the barrel variation is the point of the brand. That's an obvious yes for me. I don't like the argument that lambic or wild ales shouldn't be listed separately because we should expect more batch variation from spontaneous beer, so barrel variation should get rolled up into that.

The compromise for me is to let the brewers decide, largely as signaled by the packaging and branding. If variants are simultaneously released with clear labeling of the different barrels, that warrants separate listings. If Brouwerij Boon wants to keep marketing which Foeder number a batch of lambic aged in, I'm inclined to also list that separately; even though it's their own foeders and not spirit barrels from a distillery, their clear intent is to distinguish those bottles from each other.

The gray area is what to do with annual releases where the barrel may be mentioned in the flavor text on the back of a label, it's different from the bourbon house used last year, but it's not mentioned prominently on the front of the label alongside the name of the beer.

 

Wow, this fooled me. I voted "yes" for separate entries for different barrels. I assumed we were talking about the broader spirits- say a whiskey barrel vs. a sherry barrel for example. After voting I look at the first post and we are talking about the difference between this year's bourbon county barrels? These are all bourbons so I would have voted no to this Where is the line drawn? There are going to be variations from individual barrels or batches of the same beer. If BCBS had WT barrels bottled on say something like 10/1 and 10/2 are we going to start listing dates as separate entries? My two cents would be list the details in your review and ratings and leave all this year's BCBS under the same beer. Some people might not even be aware of the fact there are barrel difference for it since you have to look at a code on the back.

 

I voted depends.

I think brewer intent as.reflected in the marketing/packaging is the only source to get a consistent answer. If the brewer is telling you (by broadcasting some distinction based on barrel) to expect a different beer then we should enter it as a different beer.

 

So though I voted yes, on a practical level I agree with everyone who said it should be determined by the brewer. That being said if a brewer uses different spirit barrels but keeps the name the same I feel there could be an impact on the overall score based on the version Beer Advocates review. But I'm not the brightest bulb in the bunch!

 

This makes sense.
Lagunitas Willetized would have a different listing than Lagunitas Old Crowified and Lagunitas BBA stout would have yet a third listing.

 

Lol. I dig it. You're soaking in. Nice play on words.

 

If you are referring to the 2020 release of “Easter egg” BCBS bottles, then in my opinion - no. I think the database should typically conform to how a beer is labeled and sold. If the beer is different enough that the brewer sells it under a unique name or main label, then it should be classified as a unique beer. If the brewer doesn’t do this, then neither should BA. I believe those single-barrel BCBS bottles were still just sold as regular “BCBS.” The only distinguishing mark was a code in the date stamp. They were essentially just sold as the regular beer and in my opinion wouldn’t get separate entries on BA... but this is ultimately up to the folks who run the site of course.

 

I feel like the distinction should be left to the brewery to give you notes on barrel style. It would be nice for your stronger ales to have spirit identification or if it’s fortified wine barrel aged to make a note of which type of fortified wine

 

I thought the BCBS that had the distillery in the code was for Chicago area distribution only. The rest weren’t noted so I’m assuming they’re a blend of all three.

 

Had to vote yes to this. Different barrels add considerable characteristics to the beer, and should be reviewed accordingly, IMO.

 

I say it depends. If the brewer specifies a different barrel on the label (i.e. Lagunitas Willitized coffee stout) then I think it deserves it's own entry. But if like your wheatwine example, if Lagunitas used a different barrel but every year just released it as BA coffee stout and doesn't specify what it is on the label, then I don't feel a separate entry is needed. Parabola I feel is a good example, they blend many barrels but don't specify what they are so it doesn't get a new entry every year. But Napa Parabola got an entry because the was different was called out in the name.

 

Exactly. If it had said the barrels on the label rather than an obscure code on the back different story. At that point what if you are creating a separate entry based on a code, than what do you do with same barrel different bottling date, create a different entry for that as well in the event there may be some variation.