I've been drinking Founders Curmudgeon from time to time over the past few years and have never noticed it was oak aged. Does anyone know if it's in barrels or on cubes? Or anymore about the process. Was a bit surprised because it doesn't give off a huge barrel profile.
Notes/Commercial Description: 50 IBU Old ale brewed with molasses and oak-aged. That means non-barrel aged. Curmudgeon's Better Half was barrel aged.
If they used oak barrels, I suspect that the label would say as much. My guess is that they use staves or spirals or chips, etc. The molasses comes through to me far more than the oak.
The last four pack of Curmudgeon that I purchased (besides the one I got yesterday) had sit on the shelf in the store for over a year. The oak was very well blended into the beer and the molasses and plum really stood out. The bottles I got yesterday had the molasses and plum but much less so. And the oak was much more pronounced at the end. The beers were OK but I'm going to throw the last two in the cellar for a couple years before I revisit them.
I get at least as much oak from chips as I do barrels, if not more (though I've never had the same beer chipped vs. barreled). Oaked Bastard comes to mind instantly- wood is one of the most dominant flavors for me.
From a purely theoretical point of view I can't see why you wouldn't. It should just be a function of wood surface area exposed to beer, and wood chips should easily be able to match a barrel in that regard. Unless maybe they all clump together at the bottom of the tank or something.
