Barrel aging is totally a thing. Well, it has been for centuries. Before industrialization, Europeans fermented beer in wood, stored and shipped in wood, and poured directly from wood. Beer spoiled often. Life was hard. By the mid-20th century, most breweries had happily traded their temperamental wooden barrels for the reliability and convenience of metal tanks. Beer spoiled less. Life was decent. However, brewers have long known that wood-aging can add flavor and depth to beer, especially if said barrel previously contained Kentucky bourbon, Jamaican rum or Washington state wine. The result is a beer more complex than most, as additional flavors bleed from inside the staves — deeper woody notes that play to a beer’s bass and an extended taste that finishes with a nip of booze. In the early 1990s, when Chicago’s Goose Island Beer Co. concocted its first Bourbon County Stout, the practice took an intoxicating turn. After three months inside used bourbon distillery barrels, the brew had a complex oak character from the wood and rich flavors from lingering whiskey — characteristics that made the Bourbon County Stout an instant hit. Stouts and porters most often get the treatment, but today brewers chuck Belgian tripels, barleywines, IPAs — whatever styles of beer stoke their imagination — in wine, brandy, tequila, even maple syrup barrels for anywhere from a few weeks to several years. The results are rarely disappointing: A boozed-up barrel can be like Viagra for beer. So without further ado, here are five craft beer primed and ready to deliver great barrel aged taste in our Craft Beer Crosscut 6.16.17: A Flight of Barrel.
Avery Expletus Barrel-Aged Sour Ale
5.9% ABV, 18 IBU
In spring of 2016 Avery Brewing added another sour ale to its Barrel-Aged Series; this one inspired by the Tequila Sunrise cocktail. Expletus is a 5.9 percent ABV ale that has been aged in fresh Suerte tequila barrels with cherries for six months. In addition, the beer incorporates a combination of saccharomyces, brettanomyces drie, lactobacillus and pediococcus. Funky wet hay and soil meld with sweet cherries in the top of the aroma while layers of curacao, noyaux and little buttery vanilla center the scent. The flavor kicks off with sweet cherry fading to agave and molasses, while the finish is all red apple and tongue-twisting tartness. While the impact of tequila is just a bit subtle for our tastes, the brew’s gorgeous tart cherry character pulls out smooth oaky tones that makes this 35th release in Avery’s barrel-aged series one of its best.
Goose Island Sofie
6.5% ABV, 20 IBU
As the story goes, Chicago area resident and Container Corporation employee John Hall got the idea for starting Goose Island while flipping through an in-flight magazine article on boutique beers during a flight delay in 1986. He must be the only person in history who made a major career decision on the basis of a Delta Sky article. Certainly, he isn’t the first to name a beer after his or her granddaughter. Sofie, Hall’s granddaughter, is also his popular saison, fermented with wild yeasts and blended with 80 percent Belgian style saison and 20 percent Belgian style saison aged in wine barrels with citrus peel. Belgian wheat lovers take note; Sofie is a bullseye in a wheelhouse that’s right up your alley. It has everything you love but intensified: more citrus, more Champagne fizz, more tickly spice for a dry finish. Because it’s aged in wine barrels, there’s also a hint of green grape, a one-eyebrow raise that adds it to the subtle, spicy white pepper, a hint of citrus, and creamy vanilla finish.
Goose Island Cooper Project No. 1: Scotch Ale
8.7% ABV, 24 IBU
Goose Island kicked off 2017 with this bourbon barrel aged scotch ale, a Goose bourbon barrel release that doesn’t requires you to take an Uber home after one snifter. It’s a blend: 50 percent aged four months in Heaven Hill bourbon barrels and 50 percent fresh beer. The result is a sweet, caramel nose with a touch of raisin tempered by a wisp of oak. It’s clean upfront on the palate, then lands with a whoosh of vanilla, coconut and toffee, and a pleasingly dry finish.
Pelican Cherry Poppin’ Dory
6.2% ABV, 42 IBU
Pelican Brewing’s award-winning Doryman’s Dark Ale is aged for three months in wheat whiskey barrels with a blend of two Oregon cherry varietals. The brown ale takes on a complex aroma of ripe cherries and delicate oak while the roasted malts and northwest hops tie everything together. Sweet cherries pair harmoniously with the roasted malts. Sour cherries leave a subtle and pleasant tartness. The Cascade and Mt. Hood hops provide just the right amount of balance against the toasty malts with notes of caramelized biscuits, earth and cocoa.
Founders Doom
12.4% ABV, 100 IBU
Doom is a version of Founders Brewing’s Double Trouble imperial IPA that’s spent four months in bourbon barrels. The aroma is mouth-wateringly fruity, with pineapple, tangerine, peach and cantaloupe. The malts and the barreling treatment contribute vanilla custard, bourbon and toffee, and the hops add a bit of fresh-cut grass, plus a whiff of cedar or juniper. Overall, this tastes like an excellent American barleywine. It coats the palate with a pleasant smoothness that contrasts with the warm finish, with a lingering sweetness that peeks through. There’s just a lot going on in this craft beer.
