School me on Bourbon Barrel Aging

I'm a BA newbie, but I like the heavier Bourbon hit. I kinda prefer BA Porters and Brown Ale Aged brews vs most Stouts. I like a little more carbonation, and the lighter feel. The exception is Parabola. I love a good Bourbon and i like a nicely hopped IPA, and to some degree balance IMO can be over rated.

 

My 2 cents is that if you don't like bourbon in the first place please don't be drinking BA beers and complaining they taste like bourbon. In a related area I had a Scotch aged Black Hole from Mikkeller and it was amazing because it tasted like beer and scotch which I like because I love beer and scotch. Yet a bunch of the reviews are terrible due to people complaining that it taste too smokey....

 

I would guess that some brewers have a harder time getting barrels fresh from the distillery, but if you do, you only need to pop off the wooden bung that the distillery puts in after emptying and then purge and fill. Barrels coming form the distillery are essentially sterile. If you have to clean and sanitize the barrel, you are getting rid of most of the bourbon flavor.

 

Having dealt with getting deliveries of large objects quickly, I very much doubt that getting large quantities of barrels very quickly after they're emptied is easy. I wouldn't be surprised if it's impossible for anyone but the biggest customers (like Goose Island or Founders).

Also, it's not clear to me that what you said is actually true.

 

Would you include Firestone Walker in that list?

 

I don't know, maybe? I'm not sure how many barrels anyone uses, but I'm guessing GI and Founders are near/at the top.

 

I'm like you with the BA stuff, I taste the Bourbon, but I don't get vanilla notes, peat, smoke or anything else really, I suppose not enough volume to impart those characteristics. I like a Bourbon forward brew, I like decent carbonation, and a little head that goes to the bottom of the glass. Without carbonation some stouts are kinda syrupy in mouth feel. Actually outside of KBS and Parabola I prefer really BA Porters/Brown Ales which I love, but the Bourbon is big time, to each his own.

 

I've skimmed over all the posts in this thread and I don't believe anyone has mentioned one of the very important variables in barrel again that could (but not likely) be at play here and that is barrel size... I would guess most breweries use stand 55 gallon bourbon barrels, however there are some small local distilleries that use 5 or 10 gallon barrels to age their spirits. If a brewery were to use one of those smaller barrels, 2 months could impart huge bourbon flavor. The barrel I have in my avatar is from a local Florida distillery that uses only 5 gallon barrels, and the first time I used it with my homebrew I only had to age the homebrew for 2 weeks to get the whiskey flavor I was going for... Again, probably not the case here, but it's another variable that needs to be considered in some instances.

 

It's pretty true. I'm not sure how quickly any given brewery can get a certain amount of barrels, but I doubt it's impossible. Those barrels are pretty sanitary vessels if the distiller bunged them up when they we're done. I'm sure there are exceptions. If you go through some sort of liquid sanitation process, yes, you will loose some bourbon flavor.

 

I don't have a problem with "some", that's obvious, it's "most" that I have trouble believing.

 

What percent of the beer is typically barrel aged? I always just assumed 100%, but another post gave me the impression that only a certain % is and it's all just blended at the end.

 

That most don't sanitize them? The way you worded your conversation with the 50/50 guy made it seem like they only sanitize the ones that they feel may cause problems or where there is visible mold.

 

No, the other dude said that washing would eliminate "most" bourbon flavor. Obviously it gets rid of some, but it's not clear to me that it'll get rid of most.

 

Usually they'll say if it's not 100%. Beers like Abyss, for example, aren't entirely BA.

 

I'd contest this, strongly. As a lover of whiskey of all types (sans Canadian, but c'mon ) and beer, some mixes work and some don't. I wouldn't like it if you poured a shot of makers mark into my lager. A BA beer should be a complete offering, and should taste as such. Some fall short of this and taste really disjointed.

As for scotch and scotch beers. I havn't had that one, but a lot of them ARE too smokey. AND YES, I DRINK SCOTCH. The fact of the matter is that smoke n' peat moss flavor is a difficult one to work with, and it needs to be pretty pampered to work. You need plenty of complimenting flavors and a lot of sweetness to balance. Otherwise it tastes like licking an ashtray.

On the other hand, everyone's tastes are different, and everyone tastes the same things differently. Its best to just not get upset about beer ratings

 

It usually says on the label.
I know some of Deschutes beers like the Abyss are only partial. I think 25% on Abyss. Also, Boulevard Imperial Stout is about 50%.

 

Exactly. The amount of surface area greatly impacts the amount of bourbon flavor that a barrel will impart.

Many breweries blend their beers. Abyss and Parabola are the most notable, but many will blend fresh/non-BA beer with the beer coming out of the barrel to temper the bourbon character.

Also, I'll confirm that several brewers that I have talked with about this have said that they do not empty any residual bourbon in the barrel - which can vary a lot. I have heard reports that some barrels might show up with as much as a quart or two of bourbon still in it.

 

Weyerbacher Insanity has the least amount of bourbon flavor of any bourbon stout I've ever had. I had ton convince one friend that it even had bourbon and many reviews of it don't even mention the flavor. I like Insanity, but maybe you don't like bourbon that much?

edit: i wrote the above thinking of Heresy. I can't remember how much boubon flavor is in Insanity.

 

I know some breweries do this but I always thought it was illegal to do so. I'm pretty sure there's a law that says it's illegal to blend beer with liquor/spirits/alcohol/whatever. I feel like racking a beer into a barrel with a few quarts of bourbon on the bottom would violate that law.