What's the difference between barrel aged and oak aged?

For me, I think of "oak aged" as either using oak chips or maybe even a fresh oak barrel. "Barrel aged" for me has had bourbon, whiskey, etc in it before the beer went in.

 

Try something like a schlafly oak aged barleywine. You will get a ton of vanilla, smoke, and oak in that one. It is aged with oak and zero bourbon. It is the most oak forward beer I have had and I love it. Follow that up with a Hoppin frog bourbon aged boris, Backwoods bastard, or something like that and you will see a clear difference in flavor between oak and bourbon aged beers. You will still get the vanilla, smoke, and oak flavor coming from a barrel, but those flavors will probably play second fiddle to bourbon notes, even in lightly aged beers.

 

Usually when something is "barrel aged" it is Bourbon, Whiskey, Rye, etc... Barrel aged.
If something is oak aged that just means the barrels were just made of oak, no booze.
This results in a huge taste difference.

 

As the name implies, barrel aged beers were aged in a barrel, with bourbon/whisky and wine barrels being most common. Oaked aged usually means oak chips were added to the secondary (or at some point in the process) and the beer was left to soak in the flavors from the wood chips. Often times those oak chips have been infused with some whisky or other spirit to mimic the flavor of the barrel without the cost of purchasing and storing the barrels.

 

Or in Dogfish Head's case - 10K gallon oak tanks.

 

oak aged implies fresh oak barrels.
barrel aged is previously used barrels (often oak anyway, but with bourbon previously aged in those barrels)

 

It should be labelled aged with Oak chips, aged in a new charred oak barrel, or tell you whatever the spirit the barrel held before they reused it. If they just say oak aged or barrel aged, that can mean too many things. A beer aged in a new charred oak barrel is both barrel aged and oak aged, so I really think they need to be clearer.

 

Yeah, most brewers will admit that more often than not (like, 90% of the time), oak aged means oak chips or oak spirals. Sometimes, those spirals and/or chips was been soaked in Bourbon, Whiskey, or Rum. I don't know of very many brewers that are purchasing fresh Oak bbls, because of the cost. The price difference between spent spirit bbls and fresh oak isn't very much, and they would much rather have the spent bbls (although there has become somewhat of a scarcity/substantial price increase due to their popularity). Thus, often chips/spirals are subbed- but many a brewer will admit that their is a clear difference between the two mediums (three if you include virgin oak chips).

 

This answer most matches with what I've noticed, but I'd explain it slightly differently. "Oak aged" implies fresh oak (wood) character, achieved by aging in oak barrels that haven't been used for spirits, wine, etc., or by aging "on oak" using cubes, chips, etc. "Barrel aged" is usually used to describe beer aged in barrels that impart more than just wood flavors. This could be character from bourbon or other spirits, but brewers normally want to take credit for those flavors and will tell you about them by putting Bourbon or Whiskey in the name of the beer.

A change in terminology I've noticed lately is the use of "barrel aged" to mean aged in barrels that are not sanitized and harbor yeast or bacteria that affect the flavor of the beer. When I see that in a description in the last few years, I'm expecting at least a hint of sourness/funkiness, if not an out-and-out sour beer. Maybe this naming convention is more common in Europe, but I've seen US brewers use it this way also.

I guess the bottom line in my experience is that "Oak aged" means clean, unadulterated oak is the predominant character that's imparted. "Barrel aged" is more ambiguous and may mean several things, but will probably offer more than just wood character.

 

I am going to step out and say that I think that generally speaking; most people who have posted here are incorrect. I think that beer being aged in virgin (charred or not) barrels will state "oak barrel aged." When I see just "oak aged," that to me would indicate oak chips. For me, this has been something that I had to dig into years ago, because I was having an adverse reaction to some of these; extra partching, feeling hung over, etc. And what I found was this was in chip aged beers and all specifically used just "oak aged." Now somebody could be using virgin oak barrels and still dropping the "barrel" word from their labeling, but what would be the purpose? From the brewers that I contacted, they specifically did not use the word "barrel," because they were using chips instead of barrels. Personally, because of my experiences, it is super rare that I will touch a beer that simply says oak aged." I think that chips are fine for home brewers and for professional test batches to get an idea before a larger investment, but I find that the level of surface exposure can make a resulting beer that can suck the life out of you.

 

When brewers use the term "oak aged" it typically means some sort of oak product like oak chips, cubes, spirals, etc. For example, oak aged Yeti is aged on chips (or cubes). Same for oak aged Arrogant Bastard.

 

I've always wondered whether "oak aged" means aged in a fresh barrel or on oak chips...I've seen oak chips specifically and I've seen just "oak aged." It probably means both, depending on the beer I guess.

 

I was actually just using "chips" as shorthand, but meant all of these versions. And when you come to a beer like Oak Aged Yeti, that is a beer in particular that I have a feeling may have originally been done in barrels and then moved to one of these other methods. Unfortunately, I don't have any bottles to comment on how it had been labeled at first, but I originally loved this version of Yeti, then for 2 or 3 years thought that it became obnoxiously over oaked and then this past year had it again and thought that it had all fallen in line again. My guess is that it probably still is using chips, spirals or cubes, but that they finally found a balance that brought it back to the earlier releases.
And yes, Stone was one of those breweries to confirm to me about he oak aging, because it Oaked Bastard was one of those early parching/hang over beers.

 

While I do not think that there is a rule to this, just think about it this way...barrel aging beers is a successful marketing tactic (setting aside any of the aesthetic, artisanal motivations for the moment). So if you did an oak barrel aged beer, there really wouldn't be much sense in leaving the key word of "barrel" off the label. So if you see just "oak aged," you have either a beer aged with oak of some other source or you have some of the dumbest marketing that the craft beer industry has seen; not to use the word barrel in the labeling, when a barrel was actually used in the aging.