The seasons are changing. As the leaves fall and sweater weather morphs into snow-boots-and-scarves weather, there’s only one thing that can keep us warm: barrel-aged beers! This week, we asked The Fervent Few to discuss the qualities and techniques that define a great barrel-aged beer—and what makes one stand out from the crowd.

Ian Davis wants a beer brewed slowly and with care. “A deluge of subpar beers slip into local and national markets year after year. For me, the brewer needs to use quality barrels that are properly cared for during the entire process. They should be tasting barrels as they age to dial in the correct length that the beer should be in barrel. Dump bad barrels, and make sure the beer tastes balanced.”

If a brewer is going to barrel-age beer, Brett Higham wants the barrel to add additional flavors to the beer—not cover them up. “I want to be able to taste what’s in the beer but also question how the individual ingredients influence each other. All too often we get these aggressively incoherent, high-alcohol spirit bombs with no finesse.” Brett also has another small request: “And please stop using blackstrap molasses. All too often, it throws in chlorophenols that just don’t seem to clean up.”

Although many of our members start at the barrel, Michael McAllister looks to the beer first. “A great barrel-aged beer is brewed for the barrel and given plenty of time to mature into a nuanced finished product, showcasing both the beer and the spirit. I am skeptical of beers that are just the barrel-aged version of a standard, year-round beer. Too many of these beers are experiments meant to be quickly flipped or just brewed to see what happens. Observable deliberation and patience are more appealing characteristics for me than a beer barrel-aged for the sake of being barrel-aged.”

As some of our members grapple with the “chicken-or-egg” question of barrel-aged beer—should the barrel take priority, or the base beer?—some are ready to pick their favorites. Pete Marshall’s preferred barrel-aged beer is a once-a-year release. “A barrel-aged beer I always get my hands on is Siren Craft Brew's annual Barleywine, Maiden. As the name suggests, Maiden was the first beer ever brewed by Siren, when Casita Cerveceria founder Ryan Witter-Merithew was head brewer, and it remains the first beer they brew every year. Each release is a solera-style blend of Barleywine aged in a variety of wine and spirit barrels, topped off with some freshly brewed Barleywine. The bulk of the fresh brew goes into oak to age, joining a portion of the beer that's already been aging.”

Daniel Castro Chin’s choice barrel-aged beer evokes memories of his favorite spirit. “One of my favorite barrel-aged beers is from Monday Night Brewing. They age an Imperial Stout with toasted hazelnuts in a Macallan 18 barrel. I didn't even seek it out—I was just sitting at my go-to bar a few years back when a Monday Night rep walked in and was talking to the staff and shared the bottle. It blew me away. I used to sip scotch every week before transitioning to beer, and the beer was able to combine iconic flavors from my past in a complementary manner.”

Once he sorted through the plethora of barrel-aged beers, Ian Davis fell for one that was aged in a prized barrel. “There is a brewery near me in Ohio called Missing Mountain, and they just tapped Kali, a beer that’s aged in Weller 12 barrels. It blows me away every time I have it.”

Sometimes, location matters. For example, breweries near Rob Steuart mostly use wine barrels to age their beer. “We don't have a long whiskey-distilling history in Australia—but we do have a massive wine industry, so a lot of barrel-aged beers are aged in wine barrels. Rocky Ridge from the southwest corner of Australia do a great Imperial Stout that’s aged in wine barrels. This year, the beer was aged in a blend of Chardonnay and Cabernet barrels.”

What are some of your favorite barrel-aged beers? Join The Fervent Few and share your thoughts!