Is Surly Darkness Barrel Aged?

It's barrel aged now:
http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/darkness-day-2014-thread.188640/page-5

 

Giant boo from me. Loved it non-barrel aged.

 

As per the link above: previous to this year's, no. This year, yes.

 

Regular Darkness is great, but this is a nice changeup.

Jealous of MN folk who get to taste Non-BA '14 Darkness on cask tomorrow at the Surly Taproom, dry hopped w/ Simcoe & Amarillo. Mmmm.

 

Hey guys, I have talked with people at the brewery...it is indeed 100% barrel aged this year...for approx 4-6 months in high west bourbon barrels (Same type of barrel used to age Surly 8 which is an oatwine). I have been told that this might be a one time thing and is due in part to the demand the brewery has on its current resources...for instance they were unable to make surly wet this year...once the new brewery opens up it should be back to being non barrel aged although I could see them doing both.

 

I wanted to correct myself...High west Rye whiskey barrels

 

Blech! They ruined perfectly awesome Darkness!!

(And, yes, before anyone says anything - I know that is just my opinion.)

 

I kind of feel that Darkness is one of the few top tier unbarrel-aged stouts, so by them making it BA, they're entering an area with a hell of a lot more competition. I'm sure it will be awesome, but only being in barrels 4-6 months may not be enough time to allow the bourbon flavors to mix in. A lot of others are aged for a year or more.

 

I would agree in that Darkness is my favorite non-BA stout, but who knows, maybe a "lightly barrel-aged" touch will add another subtle layer to an already complex beer (as opposed to turning it into a stout that is heavy on the bourbon).

Either way, I'm excited to see if they've pulled it off.

 

I normally think the bottle artwork is pretty badass. This one, not so much.