Advice with Bourbon Barrel Aging Issues

[derek.duf]

I was (and mostly still am) learning as I go when it comes to barrel aging. We started with barrels about a year ago, and having no prior experience with them, its been a trial and error to get to know 'that side' of the brewery. We finally have a decent program up and running, and have had good success with many beers. My biggest frustration however comes from anything I age in bourbon barrels. I've got a few different styles of beers in bourbon barrels, yet none of them have developed that nose or flavor I associate with bourbon barrel beers. That distinctive sweet, candy like bourbon nose that pretty much every bba beer I've had has. I thought I needed to just keep let them going to get that better flavor, but after 10 months now it hasn't improved. All I get is more of a bitter, alcoholicic-bourbon smell and taste. FWIW, I've gotten all my barrels from Rocky Mountain, and they've been from a few different distilleries.

Any help or pointers or advice would be greatly appreciated.

[mikeyrb1]

How are you treating the barrels before use? What temp are you storing them at?

[derek.duf]

How are you treating the barrels before use? What temp are you storing them at?

For the Boubon barrels we do not treat them at all, get them fresh and transfer the beer into them. They're stored at room temp, which in so cal varies from 80-60

[claponsie]

I was (and mostly still am) learning as I go when it comes to barrel aging. We started with barrels about a year ago, and having no prior experience with them, its been a trial and error to get to know 'that side' of the brewery. We finally have a decent program up and running, and have had good success with many beers. My biggest frustration however comes from anything I age in bourbon barrels. I've got a few different styles of beers in bourbon barrels, yet none of them have developed that nose or flavor I associate with bourbon barrel beers. That distinctive sweet, candy like bourbon nose that pretty much every bba beer I've had has. I thought I needed to just keep let them going to get that better flavor, but after 10 months now it hasn't improved. All I get is more of a bitter, alcoholicic-bourbon smell and taste. FWIW, I've gotten all my barrels from Rocky Mountain, and they've been from a few different distilleries.

Any help or pointers or advice would be greatly appreciated.

My only advice would be to treat the barrel like an ingredient, and build your recipe with that in mind. The longer the beer is in the barrel, the more it will develop a tannic character, which can be perceived as bitterness. If you pull a sample that is developing in the barrel, and it tastes too tannic to you, it might be time to pull the beer out. I tend to dial back my hopping schedule on barrel aged beers. I also shoot for a slightly higher FG on beers that I know I am going to barrel age. Not all beers hold up to the tannins they pull out of the barrel. I found this out the hard way when I barrel aged one of our house porters without modifying the recipe at all.

[Half Lion]

Temperature Change

I could be wrong, but I've heard from distillers that in order to really achieve the oak flavor is by changing the temperatures. Going from room temp, to in a cold dark room (or fridge). The temperature change allows for the beer to get sucked into the wood, then back out...bringing with it all the delicious, sweet, bourbon flavors.

[BrewinLou]

Good points in here already. I will add, check where the barrels came from. Some distilleries use them twice or more like Early Times is now a whiskey not a Bourbon as the barrels are reused. The more uses the less flavor contribution. Also check the barrels prior to filling as in a really hot or cold dry environment the barrels will dry out and not give off nearly as much flavor. We are lucky enough to be very close to the source and most of our barrels are very wet. We achieve good oak, char, Bourbon character in weeks on lighter styles maybe a month or two on standard stouts. Imperials and high gravs we will age out a year plus. As was said keeping the formula fairly simple helps highlight the nuances of the barrel flavors, you do not want to over hop or spice a beer going into a barrel unless you are barrel aging for a gimmick purposes, in my opinion. There is a nice balance that can be achieved between the subtle malts, hops, and barrel character.
One other thought, are you tasting the beer flat, or carbed up? Some flavors really do not come out without a nose full of aromatics.

[PCQC]

Let us know more about your process. How do you fill? How do you filter prior to filling? What ABV beers are you putting in?

Our Nut Brown is barrels for a very short time (less than 2 weeks) and picks up all the barrel character we need. Our bigger beers are in there for much longer. I don't know if I have ever tried a single barrel that I would drink on its own. They are all so different and usually have one intense flavor. Before we do a BA release, we go through every barrel and some are tannic, some are oaky, some are vanilla-y, some are boozy - the more barrels you have in your arsenal, the easier it is to blend all these flavors together to get a great complex BA beer.