I did not want to threadjack it so I will post it here. This is just some of the things we have done with bourbon barrles in the brewery. Leave it to American craft brewers to come up with and try new and crazy twists with beers.
In the past at the brewery I have made a Bourbon Stout. Kind of sad that we drank it all know as it was wonderful.
I would make an oatmeal stout with some extra body in it and then rack it to a bourbon barrel we got from the McCormick distillery in Weston. While they do not make a great bourbon the barrel is what we need. I aged the beer in the barrel for a total of 13 months, keeping a constant layer of CO2 on it to prevent the complete oxidation of it. The stout picked up all the flavors from the barrel like vanillin (from the oak), the bourbon in the aroma and flavor profile etc... The stout had also aged nicely. As it was a bigger beer it ended up with some awesome flavors like caramel, plums, etc... from the generous use of crystal malts in the grain bill.
There is a barrel aged beer festival in Chicago coming up. I will try to dig out some of the information on when and where. In the meantime here is some stuff on what brewers are doing with old bourbon and whiskey barrels.
http://www.michiganbeerguide.com/news.asp?articleid=63
Right now it looks like they are planning the festival for the November time frame. I will get with the planners and see if they have anything more concrete. If there is anyone who would like to attned maybe we could put together a weekend in Chicago, hit the festival and then some of the local craft breweries.
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