The Bar Towel

Looking to some of the more experienced drinkers on the board here...

I'm working on a podcast about BCBS and it got me thinking about their claim of being the "first" to bourbon barrel age beers.

I went back through some of my old beer books looking for references to bourbon barrel aging beers and there's not much. In Michael Jackson's Pocket Guide (6th ed.), he mentions Goose BCS in that writeup, which dates to 1997. Haven't gone through the rest of the book in detail, but flipping through it doesn't reveal any/many others.

So I'm curious, can anyone think of any other early published references to bourbon barrel aging beers?

Cass wrote:Looking to some of the more experienced drinkers on the board here...

I'm working on a podcast about BCBS and it got me thinking about their claim of being the "first" to bourbon barrel age beers.

I went back through some of my old beer books looking for references to bourbon barrel aging beers and there's not much. In Michael Jackson's Pocket Guide (6th ed.), he mentions Goose BCS in that writeup, which dates to 1997. Haven't gone through the rest of the book in detail, but flipping through it doesn't reveal any/many others.

So I'm curious, can anyone think of any other early published references to bourbon barrel aging beers?

According to this: http://allaboutbeer.com/article/the-bourbon-standard/ their claim dates back to a sample they did for the 1992 GABF, probably the predecessor to BCS.

And here's the first time they won, a honorable mention in the Strong Ale category in '95.

https://www.greatamericanbeerfestival.c ... inners.pdf

Interesting that there aren't any winners that have "bourbon" or "barrel" until 2001, with Big Bad Bourbon Brown from Big Horn in Texas and Czar Jack Bourbon Barrel Imperial Stout from Minneapolis Town Hall Brewery.

https://www.greatamericanbeerfestival.c ... inners.pdf

2002 saw the addition of Wood and Barrel Aged beer as a category at the GABF.

https://www.greatamericanbeerfestival.c ... inners.pdf