was doing some reading on the different barrel aging and from what I read the bourbon barrels and oak barrels are used to impart the bourbon/oak flavor into the beer.
However, the wine barrels were used for the microorganisms inside to help sour the beers being aged in them.

Can anyone confirm this? Thoughs/opinions?

Honestly this makes me less inclined to try a beer aged in wine barrels

This post was edited by SymphonicX on Aug 3 2014 02:31am

Chardonnay is a slight sour taste, I had one aged in an oaked zin barrel, and it was rather good. Had a sweet taste to it.

The chardonnay almost tastes like it adds a perfect amount of tannin to the beer.

Bro, wine barrels are sour grapes. Nn that.

Bourbon ftw.

i had this avery beer aged in tequila a few weeks ago...that stuff was delicious

its called 'opuntia'

Free will had a set of beers in their tasting room called two brothers one white and one red, same IPA round 8% abv, one aged in a white wine barrel and one in a red. I wouldn't say they were noticeably sour and they definatly picked up some of the wine flavors, overall they were very good beers.

Bourbon and oak barrels would provide their own strong flavors to the beer. if you are going for a sour, id imagine that they may be overpowering for the style of beer. wine barrels are oak as well, but should impart less flavor due to them previously been used.

I dont know about the microorganisms being inside prior to aging, but i believe a lot of breweries add in "wild" yeast for the sour process. The barrels themselves should assist in souring vs a carboy due to the dark, cool environment and also gain from the porousness of a barrel - lets oxygen, which is needed for souring.


i am more inclined to think that most microorganisms are pitched in due to the fact that a lot of breweries want to offer a consistent product. Also, they have access to "wild" yeast strains that can produce the desired outcome instead of doing it the alternative way.

This post was edited by cialda on Aug 4 2014 06:49pm

as far as wine barrels, brewers yeast naturally occurs on grape skins, due to the poruous nature of the barrel this natural yeast is defiantly going to play a role in what ever you put in the barrel after the wine.

beyond that sour beers are a complex mix of microbes, barrels are often used for them because the pourous wood serves as a home for them even after a 180 water spray and scrub, in this way the barrel can be re-used and maintain the similar microbe mix.

also some of the lambic baterias don't really come to age for a while, brettameces lambicus takes 3 years before its well aged, in this way as you continue to reuse the barrel the bacteria's can properly mature.

I don't have a barrel so I use plastic buckets and put some pieces of oak in them.

This post was edited by Ylem122 on Aug 4 2014 10:26pm

did not know about the naturally occuring brewers yeast on grape skin. Still though, i believe a handful of breweries concoct (or have them concocted) their own "wild" yeast strains and pitch those. it offers the ability to use both their own strain, keep consistency up, and can speed up the process. others make more "true" sours.

Kuhnhenns had a mead release the other day, and they were releasing their Bourbon barrel banana bochet french toast mead. I got there a half hour early and they sold out instantly, so i did not get a chance to get one they had a blueberry and creme mead on tap and I dont drink mead very often, but holy hell this was amazing. Anyways, they had a few bottle releases too, 4pk of 4th Dementia for $30 and 750 mL bottles
of 9 (its a belgian strong ale) for 15 apiece. Picked up a few of the 9's but have not tried them yet..
Also, just picked up a new Founders beer, Dissenter. It is an Imperial Pale Lager, which I am not too familiar with so that will be interesting.
During the mead release, they were doing some brewery tour and I sort of hopped in it. Best decision ever, they had tons of samples in the back and gave us all our own Kuhnhenn logo glass haha.
I have been buying a LOT of beer lately and I have not had enough time to drink them all...
Does anyone on here ever trade beers?

Any black and tan fans out there? I'm getting put in charge of picking out beer for a work event and some said they would like the idea of black and tans. I was looking for a stout and a pale ale that are both good on their own but also combined


Was looking for other than Guinness