When you think of drinks that have been aged in barrels, you probably think of wine, right? Winemakers have been aging wines in barrels for hundreds of years, and it’s super common to see on a label that wines have been aged in oak.
Did you know, however, that it’s now becoming popular to make and sell beers that have been aged in barrels?
Barrel-aged beers are becoming all the rage as more and more craft breweries and even some macrobreweries have begun to experiment with aging their beers inside of barrels. This produces some of the most interesting and unique beers that are available on the market today.
Technically, it’s possible to age any type of beer in a barrel. It’s true that some styles are more often aged in barrels than others, however.
For example, one of the most popular beer styles to age in barrels is the stout, a heavy and dark beer whose flavor is enhanced by the wood tones that barrel aging lends to the beers.
It’s also common to age sour or fruit-forward beers in barrels, and this is often done inside wine barrels. For example, Goose Island’s “Lolita” is a sour wild ale that’s brewed with raspberries and then aged in Cabernet Sauvignon barrels. Yum!
Have you ever tried a barrel-aged beer? What did you think?
