Have a question. Some random points on Framinghammers: I have several bottles of Coffee and Vanilla Framinghammer. I taste no barrel character in them. A search brings up both BA Framinghammer w/ Barismo Coffee and Coffee Framinghammer, along with both BA Framinghammer w/ Vanilla Beans and Vanilla Framinghammer. Seems pretty simple that there are 4 different beers, 2 BA and 2 not. The Jack's Abby website shows "BA Framinghammer along with Variants" (Coffee, Vanilla, PB&J, Cocoa-nut - don't know if "variants" means of Framinghammer or BA Framinghammer) under upcoming beers. I happened upon a Jack's Abby tasting recently and the rep informed me that all Framinghammer variants are barrel aged. This would seem to settle it. There are far fewer ratings for regular Coffee and Vanilla Framinghammer relative to the BA versions. I find this surprising considering Coffee and Vanilla were/are all over Boston and because the images posted for the BA versions actually say Barrel Aged on the bottle (and I have yet to see these in stores). Lastly, neither of my Coffee and Vanilla Framinghammers have the word Barrel on the label. So, are there 2 or 4 different Framinghammers here?
Can't speak for draft, but no un-barreled framinghammer made it into bottles. This year's bottles of Coffee and Vanilla don't say barrel-aged on the label but they definitely are indeed. The base BA Framinghammer is definitely where the barrel shines through strongest.
The regular framinghammer did make it into barrels this year actually. The variants are absolutely all barrel aged, though. The regular framinghammer label is very different from the BA version, and couldn't be mistaken.
The BA Framinghammer w/Barismo Coffee and the BA Framinghammer w/Vanilla Beans were the 2013 variants. The Coffee Framinghammer and Vanilla Framinghammer refer to the 2014 variants. They are essentially the same beers, also barrel-aged; however, if memory serves, the brewery used barrels from a different distillery.
Excellent folks thanks for the information. I still find it odd that nowhere does it say Barrel/Oak/Bourbon. I realize "oak" would be deceptive but I'm pretty sure that's what Dragon's Milk says even though it tastes like they forgot to drain the bourbon from the barrels they aged it in. The Coffee and Vanilla both generically state that they are "conditioned" but that's a pretty open-ended term. I suppose my failure to taste the barrel character in the Coffee and Vanilla stems from trying them after the Barrel-Aged version. Thanks for the replies.
Yeah, definitely mis-spoke. Meant to say no _variant_ that was unbarreled made it into bottles t his year.
Here is a reply from Jack's Abby stating that they were all barrel aged, and the fact that they are missing the term Barrel Aged is an oversight: http://www.beeradvocate.com/communi...aged-framinghammer.143206/page-5#post-2115616. Except for the bottle labeled just "Framinghammer", all Framinghammer variants have been barrel-aged. I do remember that the latest batch, released a couple months ago was aged in four roses barrels.
