Non Bourbon Barrel Aged Stouts

Me. I love coffee and bourbon and stout, but I prefer them to stay separated. There are some great BBA stouts and coffee stouts for sure, but none that I enjoy more than my favorite plain old stouts.

Just this week I had a Heretic (which is BBA Old Heathen) and two Old Heathens from Weyerbacher... I buy Old Heathen once in a while, but it had been a few years since I'd had a Heretic. I definitely enjoyed both, but I enjoyed the Old Heathen more.

 

I can identify with what OP says. For me, the best are FIS and Expedition.

 

I'd like to see more experimentation with other types of liquor barrels, but the wine barrel aging doesn't really work for me with a stout.

 

Ive a huge list of great non BA stouts. There are so many. FIS, Expedition, Ten Fidy, Old Raspy, Stone RIS in the RIS class, Moloko for a milk stout. Speedway, FBS, Wake n Bake if you additives, Green Flash Double Stout is another one.

BA is not needed, it is just another way to add complexity to a beer, but it should not be and is not the only way to brew a fantastic stout.

 

I prefer old rasputin its its regular non BA version.... TenFidy is one of my favorite stouts ever and its ot either. i like barrela aging but some beer just dont need it

 

What the hell did you just say?

 

sorry i really cant type on my phone... what i meant to say was: I prefer old Rasputin in its regular non BA version.... TenFidy is one of my favorite stouts ever and its not barrell aged either. i like barrell aging but some beer just dont need it

 

I waver back and forth on this topic. Both Good Morning and Mornin Delight are in my top ten beers for any style, so yes some Non-BA can def hang with the BA beers, but I think a lot of it is due to the demand breweries see for theses BA beers. Once this craze took off for better or for worse, breweries responded by BA everything.

There are also some beers I prefer non-ba like PT5.

 

I think that the bourbon barrel is a fantastic marriage for a stout, but I have enjoyed tequila (Tequila Barrel Noir) and whiskey barrels (Narwhal) and there are some stouts that are so good, and not barrel aged, that they stand up to even the best BBA stouts (Bozo Beer was nuts!!! Thank you, Evil Twin - also, Mexican Cake, Westbrook's 4th Anniversary Stout, Marshal Zhukov, etc...)

 

I also would love to see different types of barrels used, I have really liked all kinds of barrel flavors and voted tequila as my favorite in a poll here. That being said, these are special occasion beers for me and on a daily basis I would rather just have a good strong dry stout like the one Stone did a one time brewing of for a local bottle shop:
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/147/160894/

Pssst... Make more of this pullleaze

 

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/2681/46858/
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/2681/135336/

 

I've said it before, but I prefer the one on the right to the one on the left. (Although I might prefer whatever the hell is going on in the back over either of them)

 

I personhally fopund Righty dissappointing and lacking the promised overpowering flavor. While left at least the 2013 version had delicious stout flavors combined with vanilla and bourbon flavors.

 

I like analogies, so let me try one out on you...

There's tons of great IPAs. There aren't a lot of flavors that can stand out in an IPA to make it so incredibly different that it creates almost a style within the style.

Some of the things that have made brewers able to differentiate their IPAs in the past are honey (Hopslam) and more recently grapefruit seems to be making a big push.

Brewers found flavors that not only add to our enjoyment, but create significant differences in the style itself. We can only hope they continue to push the envelope in a way that suits our taste buds.

 

Narwhal!

 

Seems like half the folks in this forum are drunk of BBA beers... typos galore.

 

I just came from a tasting of Yeti with 4 variants. Three were barrel aged but not bourbon. The best was the base stout with the barrel aged coffee close behind'. They were all good, but gun to my head I pick the base stout.

 

I think BCBS is gross. There I said it. Barrel aging is fine as a subtle effect but most of them take it way too far.

 

Espresso Yeti is my favorite of the Yetis, but regular Yeti is still amazing, especially compared to other imperial stouts.

 

Love all types of stouts but my heart (and my palate) do lean towards a BBA stout like Parabola and BA Old Rasputin.