Bourbon barrel beers without the barrel

I dont know about your crazy laws in Penn. But you can buy used barrels here in various sizes.

 

It's the time spent in the barrel in addition to the flavors added from the spirit previously housed in the barrel that give a bourbon-aged beer it's full flavor instead of just adding a shot of bourbon to the base beer.

 

I'm going to pretend I never read this.

 

It doesn't, although bourbon seems to be the most common. Some non-bourbon examples are: Lost Abbey Agave Maria (tequila barrels), Clown Shoes Billionaire (cognac barrels), and Deschutes The Abyss (red wine barrels).

 

As has already been mentioned, the oak/bourbon flavor can be ‘added’ by aging the beer on oak (cubes, chips, spirals, etc.) that were previously soaked in bourbon. For commercial breweries these beers need to be labeled as being oak aged vs. barrel aged.

On the homebrewing scale (e.g., 5 gallon batches) this aging on bourbon soaked oak does provide results similar to bourbon barrel aging and there is a benefit of a shorter timeframe for aging (weeks vs. many months/years).

Cheers!

 

It is a combination of the cost of the barrel and the relatively small size of my brewing operation. I have several barrels for wine making, I just have not made the investment yet for beer.

 

I'll drink a boilermaker, but won't waste rare beer or expensive bourbon on one.

 

Don't forget beech wood!

 

I've tried several. Sours seem to be aged in wine barrels, and it tends to work very well. Cognac or Port barrels, in my experience, often add a very strong boozy fruit/grape essence, which can cut through even the roastiest of stouts. Bourbon or whiskey barrels tend to be the most versatile across the board, which can add several different nuances that can complement a variety of different beers- vanilla, oak and caramel to pair with the malts, spicy or citrusy notes to accent hops. Bourbon just works the best- and in the US, there seems to be a good amount of available barrels.

 

So I guess it takes this many posts before oxygen exchange is mentioned, in addition to some of what has been said above. While negligibly important in sacc only beers it's hugely important in beers with pedio and brett.

 

The problem is not the barrels when it takes to much flavour, it is the time in the barrel.
Many brewers tend to keep the beer in the barrels way to long...

 

Yes to all, including Scotch, Tequila, Gin

and I think Bourbon is the most used only because in the scheme of things it's the "easiest" to obtain, because Bourbon Barrels can only be used once then they have to be put to rest - most of which go to Scotch, some to Tequila and the rest to breweries for beer aging.

 

any beer made in any barrel is influenced by numerous factors, just because it comes from one spirit vs another doesn't preclude it's going to be better, you'll find variety and different amounts of quality even from brewers who use the same time of spirit used barrels, it all depends. Some you may like some you may not.

 

For anyone interested, you can google whiskey aging kits and find many companys sell used barrels. Ranging from 2 liters up to standard 53 gallon. I saw one company that had an 8 gallon one. I don't home brew, but that sounds like it would work.www.woodvillewhiskeyco.com

 

try the search function in the beer section listing for a query. If you type in gin barrel and search, you'll get some other barrel aged brews in the list but you'll see some that are gin aged and what people thought of them.

http://www.beeradvocate.com/search/?q=gin+barrel&qt=beer