I don't recall this topic being discussed, and I don't know if there's any real way to know the answer for sure. But if there is, I'd be curious to learn more. What percentage of spent Bourbon barrels currently goes to breweries for use in making Bourbon barrel-aged beers? 5%? 85%? I have no idea. What makes me wonder about this is, it seems that the cheap ingredients involved in making a Bourbon barrel-aged beer are the water, malt, hops, and yeast. The expensive "ingredients" are time and physical space (needed to age these beers), and possibly also labor (although I'm not sure how much labor is involved once the beers go into the barrels to age). So the other major variable I can think of related to the cost to proeduce these beers (and by extension, the cost to buy them) is the barrels. With more and more breweries doing more and more barrel aging, I have to wonder if we'll soon see a critical mass where there's a shortage of barrels needed to produce all these beers. Or maybe we're already seeing it.
I have tried buying said barrels for my homebrew. There is already a shortage. Even my local homebrew supply store is out of regular barrels.
I don't have any idea what the percentage is but it's probably a large percentage that are reused for other alcoholic beverages, whether it is beer or spirits.There doesn't seem to be a shortage and with the growing craft distilling industry there will be an increasing availability of barrels.
Well bourbon barrels are pretty plentiful due to the fact that the Distiller only can use them once to make Bourbon. So as I see it, as long as people are drinking Bourbon, we will have barrels to age beers in!
Partly guessing here but I'd say the demand for Bourbon Barrels sold to breweries hasn't grown enough to drive up prices of beer significantly. For several years Weyerbacher has been aging Heresy and Insanity in whiskey barrels and the price increases in those beers over the last 7-10 years have been consistent with price increases for other stuff I buy from other breweries that are in the same price range but not barrel aged. But I'd also hazard a guess that a bigger driver of any potential shortage of Bourbon barrels for aging beer is the dramatic growth in popularity of single malt Scotches over the last 10-15 years. Lots of Bourbon barrels get emptied here and then shipped off to Scotland for use there. (The Scots don't have rules about no prior use of the barrel and do a lot with aging malt whisky in previously used barrels of several kinds.)
Barrels are used and reused, for wine, boubon, whiskey, etc. I remember when I went to La Trappe, they had quite a few barrels that were in different stages of aging from Jack Daniels, from Macallan, Glenfiddich, etc. Barrels are shipped all over the world, so someone would probably be hard pressed to answer your question accurately. Also, you make a good point about the barrels. Cooperage (the making of barrels) is a fine art and barrels are expensive, especially when made by a reputably cooperage who will select the oak based on a wide variety of criteria...
Brewers need to worry more about Makers Mark rinse technique catching on. They will fill used barrels back up with water and agitate it so that the bourbon left in the wood is extracted. Leaving nothing for our favorite aged beers. If this catches on, this will be the biggest villian to bourbon barrel aged beer. Note: I'm not positive but I think this technique was first used for Jim Beam Devils cut. Anyway, Cheers!
With the resources that A-B has to acquire barrels for Goose Island's BCBS you'd think they would go ahead and do it because of the huge demand for that beer, so maybe there is a barrel shortage and maybe that is the reason that they don't. But consideration can also be given to a lack of space to store them, or maybe A-B doesn't think the profit margin is enough for the return on their investment.
Most used bourbon barrels are sent overseas for aging scotch. The key to barrel aging beers is getting freshly dumped barrels. The whole devils cut method is interesting but I don't think it will catch on across all distilleries.
A very trivial percentage for the big companies. While the margin on re-sale to beer companies are nearly twice that of everywhere else they mainly go to scotch, irish, rum and even tequila. All the major bourbon makers have been increasing their sales to craft companies the past 5 years but it's not as efficient.
Not much help, but Foothills doesn't seem to ave a lot of trouble getting 20 yr old PVW barrels that are plenty hot. How much not a clue.
Bourbon has been one of the hottest growing categories the last few years and there will only be more barrels out there in the future. A lot of the heavy growth is in the premium and super premium segment, hence Maker's shortage and the plans to get more bourbon out of the barrels to curb supply shortages. It's hard to plan for demand 5+ years out, this is why there have been so many odd vintage releases in year's past. It was because of surplus juice stuck in barrels for years past intention. The label date merely means "a minimum" and can be in a barrel substantially longer. Unfortunately, there is a cost in over-aging and expenses are incurred based on when the barrels are opened at the cost of commodities when they were originally purchased. Many big suppliers are getting hit hard this year on COGS for barrels filled 5+ years ago during high corn costs...
