A new batch of Rare?

I spoke with Brett Porter at WTF? in Denver last Friday. He said that 45 year old bourbon barrels were currently being used to make Rare 2, which would then be followed by King Henry 2. Think he was just spinning the rumor mill?

 

Oh boy, this one is going to be epic (the thread that is).

 

Thank God! This is was a slow day at the office.

 

Rare 2 is for sure. Gonna be out in 2 years according to my buddy that works at GI.

 

It is 45 year old Heaven Hill.

 

So the Instagram caption says 12 yrs, the tweet says 25 yrs and random guys say 45 yrs. Ok.

 

https://twitter.com/WBBeerBuzz/status/391218696892329984/photo/1

 

Yeah the guy who said 12 year corrected himself to 25. Now it looks like 45 actually? I think we can agree 12 is not correct. 25 or 45 either way this should be good.

 

Looks like barrels from multiple years:

https://twitter.com/southloopbeer/status/391248750057758721/photo/1

 

Isn't the age of the barrel a lot less important than how long it actually had whiskey in it? Is it that these have probably held whiskey three or four times?

 

Typically if not always, a barrel is only used once for whiskey and bourbon etc.

 

I thought so. I guess I just don't get why the age of the barrel itself matters.

 

A barrel that held bourbon for 3 years vs 21 years will have a greater impact on the beer being aged in it

 

I suspect the 'age of the barrel' is just another way of saying how long it held bourbon/whiskey.

 

To be called bourbon, the spirit must go into barrels that are charred and never used before. Other whiskeys (especially scotch) can use barrels that previously held other spirits.

Regardless, these held bourbon for a long time. The resulting beer may be awesome. It may not be. I know that 50/50 also got some really old barrels recently.

 

Also, only an idiot brewery (see Nebraska) would use barrels that aren't freshly emptied.

 

So is there some 45 year bourbon that just doesn't exist on the market (yet)?

 

And thus begins another thread where everyone's an expert on barrels.

Tashbrew really should have a thread on here stickied at the top of each forum and upon registering for BA you are forced to read it, like at least three times, and then upon entering any thread regarding barrel-aged beers you're prompted on whether or not you need to re-read that thread again. Would save for a lot of overly repeated questions and back and forth half-informed responses.

/suggestionforumpost