History of Barrel Aging

Sam adams, goose island, the guy from 50/50 all early adopters (90s). Cask beer older than the internet.

 

In modern times, I'd say Hair of the Dog was one of the first to use barrels.

 

Lambics and various sours have been made for hundreds of years.

 

Are you only inquiring about barrels that previously held something other than beer?

 

Even wine barrels have been used for a really long time. Spirit barrels perhaps?

 

From what I've read, isn't Bourbon County the first ever BA stout? If so even more props to them for making one of the best ever as well as being the first.

 

Since before it was put into glass bottles most likely!

 

Yeah meant to mention hotd in my post. Adam is such a great beer.

 

The Celts invented the oak barrel sometime before 350 BC and archaeological evidence indicates they brewed beer since at least 550 BC - some people trace it back even further. I would suspect that these clever folks would quickly put 2 and 2 together and put their beer into one of their newly invented oak barrels.

 

True. Cantillion probably has been aging in barrels longer than any existing brewer. I sometimes forget lambic is beer.

 

I think the original question was about major breweries / current breweries. I think the first reply was spot on with SA, GI and Todd (Floosmor & 50/50). From what I heard at 50/50 was that GI was in fact first with BCBC 1992 however Todd had connections in the spirit barrel world allowing the breweries access (easier access) to obtaining the needed barrels. I think part of Todd's background is what even today allows him to land some of the most diverse barrel selections of any brewer especially considering the small size of 50/50.

 

Hair of the Dog started barrel aging beer in 1994. Maybe not the first in American craft, but close.

 

Pabst and its predecessors sold Ballantine IPA which was aged in wooden tanks, lined apparently with a wax of some kind. It left the market in '96 but was recently brought back, not aged currently in wood. The previous version hung around long enough to influence some of the craft beers mentioned in this thread, IMO. Tank and barrel aging are not quite the same but similar. The idea to use barrels that held something else previously (wine, brandy, whiskey) is more a recent notion. However, in the 1800's, it is known that sherry butts were used to store porter, so none of this is really new.

Of course, cask ale in England is very old and some brewers in the 80's here were using (surely, here and there) a wooden cask or keg to offer cask beer. The wood probably would influence the beer to a degree and it is cask aging of a sort. I recall Upper Canada Brewing offering a cask ale in a wood keg in the late 80's in Toronto, for example, and I believe Manhattan Brewing Company in NYC in the 90's occasionally used wood for cask beer.

 

Goose Island claims to be the first, beginning in 1992.

http://www.gooseisland.com/our-story.html#our-history

Another part of the story is that it was tried by a homebrewer in the Chicago area and that GI owner John Hall decided it was worth trying out commercially.

 

I heard the same. GI's BCBS was the first.
Also heard that the 2nd beer to be aged in bourbon barrels was Cuvee de Tomme (Lost Abbey/Port Brewing).

 

GI doesn't claim that in their write up, only that they began doing barrel aging in 92 and having that program result in BCBS in 2004.

 

Yeah, I didn't want to get into the specifics but thanks for expanding.

 

I don't know if this thread can be settled until we hear from jesskidden...