Do you like barrel aged IPAs?

It depends on the base beer. A nice balanced IPA with a good caramel malt backbone tends to work well. While a in your face hop forward IPA doesn't work at all for me.

While I have had some good BA IPAs I usually tend to like the base IPA better. The style in general seems to be a lot for the brewery to go through when it doesn't make the product more enjoyable

 

no

 

I thought Doom was actually pretty good. Treads on that barley wine threshold like Devil Dancer did with some age on it and I didn't think the barrel was too overpowering, I still got a lot of resinous pine hop flavor. Wife said "It tastes like pine needles soaked in bourbon." She hates bourbon so her opinion doesn't count.

Sixpoint had a their Willet BBA Signal IPA a few years ago on tap and I enjoyed that quite a lot. That was a barrel aged smoked IPA then blended with a fresh batch. So I think that led to a lot of flavor depth.

 

Whether it is barrel aged our simply aged on oak, I really adore this style when done well.
Favorites [which is most of them!]:
- Doom (Founders)
- Hop Crisis (21st Amendment) [Really, really bummed that they are putting this brand on hold]
- Burton Baton (Dogfish Head)
- Bittersweet Lenny's R.I.P.A. On Rye (Shmaltz)
- White Oak Jai Alai (Cigar City)

 

Tried Doom last night and wasn't impressed. From that list above Burton Baton is the one that I found really tasty. That is a great beer.

 

As much as it pains me to say this because I like BBA beers, I have had two BBA IPAs (Doom was one) and I was surprised that enjoyed both of them. However, I can't bring myself to become a fan because when I drink an IPA I want the hops to be the star, not the bourbon.

 

No

 

Not sure about bourbon and hops, but the barreling of some IPAs really works for me.

My favorite so far is Naughty 90, an oaked IPA by Toppling Goliath.

 

The only one I've had is Doom, and while I did actually like it a lot, I liked it more for its drinkability and immense bourbon character than as an IPA. I feel like barleywine/old ale/strong ale as a style fits what BBA IPAs are going for, but better.

 

The only one I've had that I actually enjoyed was DFH Burton Baton. Cigar City's Oaked Jai Alai was a complete disappointment for me. MUCH too sweet for my tastes.

 

Nope

 

So - the question is how BA IPAs hold up since it is established that IPAs are known for their hop flavor and should be served fresh. Does the BA "time in the barrel" hurt their hop payload? How long can it be barrel aged before it is killed as an IPA? Does barrel aging change anything regarding how long an IPA can be cellared?

 

Not that I am adding anything new to the conversation, but it is a scientific fact that all BBA IPAs that I have tried are nasty. All but Doom. Doom is a BA Beaurty

 

Hit or miss for me. In some cases I find the barrel/wood to be overpowering or underlowering.

These may not all be barrel aged, but incorporate wood in one way or another.

Doom: Tried it and didn't like it, which was disappointing, because I was very excited. It was a big, bitter IPA in my mind which did not work well with the BBA process. In this case, I needed some bigger bourbon barrel/bourbon qualities to balance out the beer.

White Oak Jai Alai: I didn't like this one. I thought the wood was too forward and it seemed a bit out of balance for me.

DFH Burton Baton: I like this one. It's a big beer that can withstand the oak flavor. All of the flavors are in unison to me.

Bolero Snort We're Bucked: A local offering which is a pale ale aged on Spanish cedar. This pale seemed to be more malt forward to me and worked very well with the Spanish cedar flavor.

 

I generally don't like IPAs that get barreled, but Odell's Barrel Thief DIPA was an exception.

 

I found the hops in Doom to be fairly forward on the initial taste of the beer. I've had a few that I've very much enjoyed including Founders Doom, Burton Baton and a local favorite Community's Oak Aged Mosaic IPA.

 

Yes, love em!

 

I enjoy them. Great Divide - Rumble is another good one that I don't think has been mentioned yet.

 

A long time ago I saw a chart of how barrels strip hops. One of the guys in my club put an IPA in a BB, and the hop aroma and flavor were gone.

There are a few references out there that show that hoppy beers should have TPO of <30 ppb (parts per billion, very small).

 

I've only had brewery on tap ones, but yes I quite enjoyed them. I had them at Foothills brewing in Winston-Salem and they were quite the bourbon bomb, kinda like a boiler maker with the bourbon.
Lol, there was little Bourbon " influence" just a hammer, but I'm also a bourbon lover. But the base still needs to be good or it won't work as well, but this depends on how hot the barrels used. In the case of Foothills the base would be insignificant because the beer was heavy on bourbon.