Is the Great Lakes area the epicenter of barrel aged beer?

They sure have most of the super hyped barrel aged beers out there. I'd agree with you but I'm a homer so not sure how well the west or east does some barrel aging.

 

Great Lakes also makes great IPA, FFF, Bells, founders, Dark Horse, Half Acre, Revolution, Shorts etc...

 

I didn't realize Firestone Walker was located in the Great Lakes Region.

 

Don't forget about BBPT5

 

Exactly what I was going to say! The epicenter is in Paso Robles, CA (with due respect to KBS, BCBS, Backwoods Bastard).

 

Be even better if I could get most brews in connecting states

 

Just curious, what do you mean, specifically? You can get most of these beers in MI aside from FFF, and BCBS being impossible to come by.

Not Great Lakes, but I do wish FW would expand to MI though.

 

I do love Firestone Walker, but until they start putting out $15-$20 four-packs of bourbon stouts, I'll continue buying a ton of Central Waters/Founders/Goose Island. I do buy FW when they are around, but one or two bottles every few months isn't really what I'd call ideal.

 

Nope.

 

There isn't a single west coast IPA I enjoy as much as two hearted. I prefer an east coast ipa over west any day off the week

 

I disagree that the west coast makes the best IPAs in the world. You have Alpine and two from Russian River that are bottled. That doesn't even compare with Vermont.

The Great Lakes as a region certainly has the best range and depth of BA offerings.

 

I think it is. But I can't really say that objectively since I mainly drink beer from Michigan. I'm certainly happy with the offerings I've had from the region.

 

Since you posted this in the Great Lakes Forum, the answers may of course have a Great Lakes bias.

Go post this in the US-Pacific forum and you may have a few more dissenters

 

The United States of America is the epicenter of non-lambic barrel aged beer.

Great Lakes
PNW
California
Iowa/STL
South Atlantic
Northeast

There is way too much awesome BA options nationwide that this debate would go in circles forever.

 

Also our proximity to KY helps

 

I would agree with your argument, if by BA you mean bourbon barrel (and similar barrel) aged stouts, as obviously we can't claim to be the boss of other types of beers aged in barrels. While I certainly prefer BCBS and its variants to pretty much any other BA beer (based in great part due to their variants; I think Parabola is right up there with regular BCBS), I'd make the argument mostly based on the fact that GI basically started the bourbon barrel aged renaissance here in the US, so by definition this would be the epicenter of the movement.

 

Bcbs came before kbs?

What were the years?

 

Renaissance = REbirth, REnewal, etc. Not birth.