Lotte Peplow, the Brewers Association’s American Craft Beer Ambassador for Europe, explains why barrel-aged American craft beers are must-stock items
Barrel-aged beers, with their hidden depth and complexity, lend themselves perfectly to pairing with food and usually have long shelf lives which make them ideal for restaurants.
Often barrel-aged beers will be packaged in large 660ml or 750ml bottles with wax caps that are priced at parity with a fine bottle of wine. But what exactly is barrel-aging and how are barrel-aged beers made?
The practice of fermenting beer in wooden vessels has been around for hundreds of years but it wasn’t until the 1990s that American craft brewers started experimenting with aging beer in used spirits barrels. Today, barrel-aged beer styles produced by American craft brewers regularly win top honours at prestigious international beer competitions and is yet another example of American craft brewing’s relentless innovation. Worth seeking out for their incredible complexity, depth of flavour and subtle nuances of character, barrel-aged beers lend themselves perfectly to the cold winter months.
A variety of beer styles are suitable for barrel aging in wood but sour beers and beers with high alcoholic strength are the most common. Barrels for sour or ‘wild’ beer may be used several times over while barrels that formerly held spirits such as bourbon, tequila or gin are rarely used beyond their first or second fill. Most distilleries or vintners will sell used barrels but brewers will go to great lengths to secure the barrels they have in mind for a particular project.
Oak is full of flavoursome, aromatic compounds that can add another level of depth and complexity to a beer, making it the preferred wood for barrel-aging for many brewers.
Equally important to the flavour of the barrel is the art of blending different beer together to create the desired result. A number of base beers may be aging in different barrels, some of which may be fresh barrels to give a high intensity of oak/spirit flavour and others may have been used before to give a lower intensity of flavour and it is the skilful blending of these beers by the brewer that creates the alchemy.
So how much time should a beer spend aging in a barrel? There is no definitive answer and it depends when the beer is ready.
Barrel-aged American craft beers from breweries such as The Bruery, Firestone Walker Brewing Co, Fremont Brewing Co, Hoppin’ Frog Brewing, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co and many more are available from select wholesalers and distributors in the UK.
