What's the target with bourbon barrel aging?

Good question. One thing I've observed from beer reviews and shares with other beer geeks, is that most beer nerds find any bourbon barrel-aged beer that isn't swimming in bourbon flavors to be a failure. To this, I often have questioned why they don't just drink bourbon if they're so fixated on bourbon flavor.

I would think though, to answer your question, what would be ideal in a bourbon barrel aged beer is that it acquires vanilla, char, bourbon spice, oak, and maybe a tinge of booze, but still retains the flavors of the original beer. Like your post, many miss the mark by either not gaining any bourbon barrel characteristics or at the other extreme get swamped by the bourbon and lose all of their beer qualities.

 

OP, this is a great read from Avery that shares some valuable insight on barrel-aging and offers some mythbusting: http://averybrewing.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/New-Brewer-July-August-2015.pdf

Special thanks to @Grimm_Artisanal_Ales for sharing the article originally and bringing it to my attention.

 

It's hard to say. On one you didn't get too much barrel on then other too much barrel. Do you like bourbon / whiskey to begin with? Age also plays a part , when it's fresh the barrel IMO can been a bit hot, and I like that, but as it ages the favors blend, the harshness fades, it gets a bit creamy perhaps. Especially do with coffee stouts. The simple answer is to try a BCBS and drink a BA beer that's perfectly done. If you don't like that maybe it's a style thing.

 

You'll probably like BCBS then, it's a big beer lots of bourbon, but it's more than just a booze bomb. If you get Evil Twin try and grab some Big Bad Baptist if it's still around, it's different with the coffee, but it's a twist you might like.

 

This is a really good question because I think so many brewers put a stout in a barrel, take it out several months later, and don't even think about what they actually wanted to achieve.

Something like BCBS doesn't taste much different to me than dropping a shot of whiskey into a beer. Compare that to the extended aging of Rare or maybe Hill Farmstead stouts and it's a hugely different experience.

 

Beer to Beer and barrel to barrel also Brewer to Brewer.
A few months in a barrel does very little to a beer, the slow oxidization with the absorption of wood character and the melding of the booze and the beer happens over 8months or longer.
BCBS spends 12+months in a barrel ( could be longer depending on how long it takes to blend from 4600 casks and to select the variants).

 

BCBS is really the standard bearer for any BA stout, for a reason.

 

Y'all should read the article in the link I posted. It, to a certain extent, dispels the argument you both make about extended aging.

 

Drink a few of Clown Shoes' BBA offerings, and that will be the answer to what I think the goal of BBA should be.

Present, complementary, but in no way hiding the beer underneath

 

I've heard a target time is eight months. But, that's entirely subjective and some pull their after four, and others leave them for much longer. It really is up to the person tasting and what their goal is versus how it is actually tasting. Ideally the brewery has no actual hardset schedule except for what tasting tells them.
This all depends on what the base was, and how you want the idea of putting it in a barrel to affect it. It also depends hugely on whether the barrels the brewery got were wet or not. If they're wet. You get all the heat too and they might benefit from sitting longer.
It sounds like the scotch ale was sourced from recently used and wet barrels and the other came from barrels that were a bit drier.

 

I'm a big fan of BCBS, but it is a sweet booze bomb. Others might like something a bit more subtle.

 

There's a few more subtle I suppose, BA Narwhale but its a few months gone by now, not a stout bit BA Bigfoot is here and there too. Siberian a Night is around as well. So there's options, but I don't know his market.

 

It varies dramatically depending on style, brewer, and so forth... not all barrel aged beers from the same type of spirited barrel are all equal.

 

Great article btw. Thanks for the link.

 

That's precisely why I love the Central Waters (and to a lesser extent Tyranena) barrel aged offerings!

 

That was a great read! Thanks for reposting! Really interesting to hear how avery deals with that dry colorado weather...now I finally understand why all their stouts are so high in abv.

Makes me wonder if goose island has a temperature/humidity control on their barrel program.

 

My point was actually that some people might prefer barrel-aged stouts which are not incredibly sweet and boozy, as well as lower ABV. Not every brewer is shooting for a 14% booze bomb of a result. I had a 6% stout out of a second or third use barrel where the bourbon barrel was subtle but present. It was a wonderful beer which was not aspiring to be like Bourbon County.

 

Yes but as ive said the end goal is different from beer to beer, barrel to barrel and from brewer to brewer.
What Avery has envisioned for a beer could vary well be different than what Hills Farmstead wants from what Russian River wants or what Firestone Walker wants.