Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale - anyone tried it?

I don't think it's a case of jumping on the BBA bandwagon, I think it's more the case of making a mediocre beer and using the location of the brewery/history of the region as a selling point. I can only speak to the Bourbon Barrel Ale, but it's a sickly sweet mess of a beer.

 

This one?:

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/430

Haven't had it, so I can't say much. The reviews should point you in the right direction though.

 

They actually are a brewery & distillery on the same location. Their stout is decent but not over the top good.

 

Out of their 3 barrel aged beers...the Pale, Stout, & Pumpkin, I prefer the Pale by a large margin. It's only aged for 2wks (I believe) so it's not meant to be a huge barrel aged beer by any means. Just an 8% Pale with some nice bourbon character. If you go in expecting that, I think that it's a pretty decent beer personally.

 

I recently purchased the Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale and the Pumpkin Barrel Ale. The second poster hit the mark pretty good. The KBBA is a mess. I have purchased 4 4-packs over the last two years and each 4 pack gets worse than the previous one. My first 4 pack was well balanced. The one I just purchased is very uneven - one sip the bourbon literally smacks me upside the head and the next sip the bourbon is almost non-existant.

I was mildly surprised with the Pumpkin Barrel Ale. I have drank two of these bottles recently and the barrel aging melded pretty good with the spices.

 

It's terrible, that's all. the coffee stout is decent at best.

 

Their stout was the first BA I ever had. It was okay, but like tronto said, decent at best.

 

And given that it's barrel aged, you can probably manually adjust the rAvg of 3.68 on the KBBA down to 3.18, to account for the barrel inflation factor (BIF, the other kind)

 

I think they are trying to cash in on the Barrel Aged bandwagon as mentioned above. Their main selling point being (imo) that it unlike most coveted BBA beers this one is available year round...on the same plane it doesn't hold a candle to any good BBA brew that I have had.

I have asked various retailers about it, and they reply that it sells like hotcakes for some reason. Even their Pumpkin ale in my town sells out in a hurry for $15 a 4 pk? I would rather have a good version of any of the styles they produce sans the barrel treatment. (by other reputable brewers)

BA ratings give their main brew a 83, and I would agreed that pretty much tells the story...not horrible, not good either.

 

As a native and homer, I have to still say their beer is mediocre at best. The brewery is known as either Lexington Brewing Company (pre-buyout) or Alltech, which is the parent company. Alltech is actually in the equine industry (go figure, in KY) making horse medicine I believe, and when Lexington Brewing was failing, the owner of Alltech, Dr. Pearce Lyons, had a soft heart and bought them out keeping them afloat.

The brewery has actually been around for a long time and is, in fact, the oldest existing brewery in Lexington, but they have BMC centric roots stemming from decades ago when beer was intended to be light and fizzy. Back then, the owner had his heart set straight, but brewing a flavorful beer in the eighties isn't exactly what it is now. And unfortunately enough for him, the craft beer boom didn't hit yet.

Enter Alltech who had the money and manpower to make a brand succeed. They're a big company with a profit minded mentality, keeping costs as low as possible by producing thinner beers with less malt while maximizing distribution and catering to as much of the masses as possible, and it's actually worked well for them. They're growing and profits are rising, in fact they can't keep up with demand, but the craft industry is up as a whole and they got in early. For someone not familiar to craft beer (and especially to those around here partial to our namesake bourbon), Bourbon Barrel Ale has been a boon. All the great qualities of bourbon mixed with a light ale. To a craft beer nerd, it's meh. Their other offerings have more or less followed suit: Bourbon Barrel Stout and Pumpkin Barrel Ale. They also have a standard Kentucky Ale and Kentucky Kolsch, which used to be called Kentucky Ale Light until they decided to shed their BMC image, but those never had the impact Bourbon Barrel Ale did, IMO.

I guess what I'm saying is, to those savvy with beer, any of their offerings will likely be run of the mill or just alright, but that's more or less been their intention, catering to BMC fans not as familiar with beer. Take it for what it is, I suppose.

 

Guess I'm in the minority but I dig it (the Bourbon Barrel Ale).

 

Same. I thought it was pretty good. The stout is better butthe kbba is not bad at all.

 

I rather enjoyed their Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale. Easy drinker with good mellow bourbon tone in the background - not one of those all up in your face booze bombs. Unusually light in color - not a sticky black syrupy thing as BBA beers can be. Not a choco-coffee nuke either. Unlike anything I've ever had. Liked it far better than the stout.

 

Kentucky Bourbon Barrel is the McDonald's of Bourbon aged beers. Cheap, available everywhere and works if your already drunk.

 

It's pretty bad. If you're looking for a lower ABV barrel aged beer, I would go with Innis & Gunn. I prefer the rum cask version but that's just me.

 

That beer is on tap at 3 bars in my town, and a lot of people here like it. I buy it pretty regularly myself.

 

Six weeks for the pale, half that for the bourbon barrel stout. It's also important to note that these are freshly emptied barrels, still wet and dripping with bourbon.

 

I thought that the Stout was WAY short on bourbon, and I found it to have a buttery taste that I just wasn't all that fond of. Thanks for the info on the length of the barrel aging.