Oak Exploration Summary

I thought I'd do a bit of a summary of my oak exploration. I might well be turning the beer/wine geek dial up past ten, but I'm just trying to get my thoughts clear on it in order to aid my understanding of how oak works.

Oak can easily overpower a subtle wine and I'd suggest that that this is no different to beer. If you brewed a simple, neutral-flavoured beer and matured it in a small, new oak, barrel, it's a simple fact that the flavours will be drawn more from the barrel than the beer.

Although oaky wines, ie. wines whose flavours have been overpowered by oak, aren't generally considered to be the best quality - and I don't mean faulty - that's not to say that there aren't people who will like them. ¹  Again I think there's a direct parallel with beer. I'd suggest that here is a question as to what the goal is in brewing a beer which is going to take on so much oak character that whatever original flavours it did have are overpowered. Some oak-aged beers may well be well-made, in the same sense that mass-produced market leaders are free of faults, but that doesn't make them multi-faceted beers of character, and that's not just a subjective matter of personal taste.

Some of this seems somewhat incongruous when you consider that some of the world's finest wines, including many, if not all of the first growth chateaux in Bordeaux aren't averse to using new oak. However, as I tried to explain my understanding of it here, there's much more to this than a simple imparting of oak flavours. As is suggested in the Oxford Companion to Wine:

Within a given type and style of wine, the richest wines will absorb the most oak with positive effects. ² 

Finally back to beer. There are certain styles that seem more suited to oak ageing, and within those styles it is the beers with the most robust character that appear not only stand up to oak ageing, but flourish because of it.

Now the plan for the weekend is to actually drink some of the stuff. I have it on authority from The Reluctant Scooper himself that BrewDog have got some oak aged beer on tap. Surely an appropriate starting point. Thanks for reading and I hope the wine references haven't put you off too much. Comments and observations are always appreciated.

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<sup>1. Oxford Companion to Wine (3rd ed.) p. 491. I've also put the reference to 'oaky' as a tasting term in my post about oak chips and wine here. ↩
2. Oxford Companion to Wine (3rd ed.) p. 775. ↩</sup>

Innis & Gunn

When I set out on my mini-exploration of a few oak-influenced beers it was because I'd amassed a bit of a collection, more by accident than design, and so I thought it'd be a bit of fun. I may have been mistaken. I honestly do try and avoid negative reviews, so I am hoping that this is the last one I do for a while, it being rather self-imposed because of the oak exploration idea rather than wanting to openly criticise a beer or, as it turned out, three, Innis & Gunn beers.

There is a plus, although it probably comes across as a bit of a backhanded compliment. The beers look good, which is presumably a big selling point (hence the otherwise unjustifiable clear glass), particularly the Original.

Sorry, I forgot one!

Original: Banana, caramel, vanilla. Some toffee and brown paper notes on the palate. Medium bodied. Drying oak finish. For me too many of the flavours and aromas come from the American white oak, and not enough from the original beer. I wasn't overly complimentary about the Tullibardine for the same reason, but it's actually better than this.
Rum Finish: Pours darker, the banana flavours and aromas are still there, but riper this time, as if more time's been spent in the fruit bowl. More tropical fruit and spice on the palate but apart from a bit of sweetness the rum doesn't really come to the fore. I'd suggest that this wasn't a cask from a really full on dark rum like the excellent Doorly's XO. The finish is confected, cloying and a bit unpleasant.
Winter Beer 2011: The banana is back. It's boozy, with a bit of a pithy bite - think mixed peel. It tastes somewhat synthetic, kind of carrying on from the confected character of the rum finish. It has a similar finish to that too. I definitely needed more body, and more spice.

So how to put a positive spin on this little exercise? I'd still give their recently released whiskey stout a go. From trying superb beers like Ola Dubh and some of BrewDog's Paradox range I'm beginning to think a richer, more robust beer simply stands up to oak better. To use a wine comparison. Oak use in white wine production has become a lot more sophisticated, leading to oaked whites that allow the fruit to come through rather than being like biting a twig.  A lesson learnt in some brewing circles but not others?

Tullibardine 1488 Whisky Ale

Not so long ago I'd have come out of a shop like the Whisky Shop in York an awful lot poorer than I went in. This is of course assuming I'd go in, rather than walking past thinking it was an Orange shop - as opposed to just an orange shop (lucky my missus was there really). So when I did go in it was with a certain amount of fear for the future of my bank balance (I'm a big whisky fan, as I'm sure some of you know). However, since I was pretty poor walking in, their selection of whisky related beers probably saved me from becoming completely destitute.

Unlike the Ola Dubh Highland Park, Tullibardine is a whisky I'm not familiar with so hopefully this is as objective an account as I can give. It pours amber-gold, with a tight head that collapses quite quickly. The nose is ester-dominated, with banana continuing onto the palate. It's nutty, with a caramel, ginger and a little too much carbonation. There is a warming finish which you could easily attribute to the whisky, but at 7% abv it's difficult to tell, although the drying effect does seem to be more about American oak than alcohol - it was certainly not the sherried sweetness I've had from other whisky cask matured ales.

I wouldn't normally blog about beers I'm not impressed by, but since this is part of a series rather than a one-off I thought I'd comment. The problem is that there just isn't that much character to the beer, and if the barrel ageing has imparted something extra then that suggests the original beer isn't that great. Tullbardine isn't a particularly old distillery and maybe it's the case that the beer didn't have a strong enough character to put up with what might have been relatively new oak.

£4.25 from The Whisky Shop in York.

On a more positive note, Tullibardine do a Banyuls finished whisky. Banyuls is a Southern-French red dessert wine which has proved a favourite when I've hosted food matching evenings, it's always gone down brilliantly with chocolate cake (there's a great one available from Weavers). I'd love to try this whisky and I'd suggest these would be excellent casks to use for maturing an Imperial or chocolate stout.


Edit: In case you haven't been and my Orange Shop comment completely confused you: The Whisky Shop...

...once you get inside though it's less ambiguous!

Harviestoun 'Ola Dubh' 12

Having finally banished the cold I had I thought I'd throw myself back into my oak-aged beers.

This one's from Harviestoun, a brewer I first came across when we had their Schiehallion lager on hand pull in the pub I was working in, many years ago. I have to admit to certain preconceptions, Highland Park being a whisky I'm a fan of. I was certainly interested in seeing if any of the heathery characteristics I associate with the whisky would be transferred to the beer.

From the opening of the bottle there's a blast of Pedro Ximénez sherry and demerara rum aromas. It pours black with a tight tan-coloured head. The aromas on actually smelling it are like an Irish coffee, all cream and whisky. The initial sweet sherry aromas don't come through on the first sip, the beer (somewhat mercifully) taking over. There's lots of coffee, walnut, burnt malt, smoke, tobacco and cinnamon on the palate. Compared to something like BrewDog's Paradox Jura it retains its 'beery' character well, rather than becoming a completely different animal. It's heady without burn, but it's in the finish that the whisky really shines through, and it's there you can detect the heather of the Highland Park.

On the oak exploration front, does it need it? Possibly not, although I've not tried the Old Engine Oil porter that inspired this beer, I certainly will if I get a chance - if it's half as good as this it'll be a great beer. Does the barrel ageing help? Most definitely, it's all about the whisky rather than the oak, but I can't see how you'd get this depth of character and flavour without it. Great whisky's finish goes on for days in the depths of your mind, and this is a beer that comes close to recreating that.

8% abv. £4.25 (33cl) from The Whisky Shop

This one's called... Dubh. Deep, dark, dirty and not to everyone's taste.

Traquair 'Jacobite' Ale

The first of my 'barrel aged' beers, for trying to get my head round oak and its influence on beer, isn't barrel aged at all, but it is from the UK's only brewery that is still using unlined oak barrels to ferment their beer in - the Traquair House Brewery up in Scotland. In the wine world this technique is sometimes used for white wines, as an easily controllable way of imparting oak character, and less frequently as a way of 'finishing' partially fermented reds (after the removal of all the skins etc.) to soften the wine.

The beer pours an almost black deep brown, the brown showing when you hold it up to the light. There's a tan coloured head which deteriorated rapidly. The aroma is dominated by malt; treacle and molasses. On the palate the beer is noticeably heady and quite sweet. It's full bodied, almost to the point where it feels chewy and sticky, with intense chocolate flavours. The treacle also returns on the palate, along with buttered malt loaf and black forest gâteau (hat-tip to my wife for that one!) The finish is sweet, and mellow.

In terms of the oak effect it's difficult to say. According to the label there are spices added, and it's also a very big, robust beer. The website says some of the barrels are two hundred years old, and I'd suggest that at that age, while they're not artificially lined, use has almost resulted in a lining of its own. There are flavours of vanilla in the beer, but since that's a spice it's impossible to tell if that's added or from the wood.  I would suggest that the beer has been mellowed out by the wood contact though, allowing it to carry its 8% abv a bit better, and the toast flavours do seem to complement and enhance those primary malt flavours.

£2.50 (33cl) from York Beer and Wine Shop.

A Waste of Good Beer?

Since I started learning more about wine and spirits I've found oak a fascinating subject, and so I thought I'd attempt to do a bit more exploration of how it effects beer. It seems to be something of a divisive subject among beer enthusiasts judging by posts such as this one on Rob's beer quest, and Ghost Drinker's defence. If, as has been suggested, 'there is no such thing as a great barrel aged beer' then I'm going to have a go at finding one anyway.

Normal size Geordie bloke, whacking great big barrel,
still nowhere near 10,000 gallons though.

My initial thought is that, like most things, oak used well will contribute to the character of the beer. Judiciously used it should add complexity to rather than detract from the 'primary' flavours that come from the base ingredients. I'm not claiming to know anything about how beer works with oak, hence the exploration. However, from my wine and spirit studies and tastings I think I've got a fair idea of what flavours could possibly be imparted from an oak barrel, and I apologise if I have to dip into wine vocabulary and terms. I'm also going to try and find out how the barrels are used, to get away from a simple 'barrel aged' statement, which I think can be pretty meaningless - as I've mentioned before. The devil's in the detail - a beer like Dogfish's 'Red and White'* which has been matured in a 10,000 gallon oak tank is going to pick up relatively little (if any) flavour due to the ratio of liquid to surface area of wood - certainly compared to a beer matured in a smaller barrique sort of size (like the smaller ones in the photo.)

The beers I've got for this mini experiment (at the moment) are from Harviestoun, Innis and Gunn, Traquair and Tullibardine. Since I love Scottish beer in the first place I suppose the question is whether it will be ruined by the barrel? The plan is to taste the beers as I normally would but I'll try and decide what difference the barrel ageing (or in one case, fermenting) has made by way of a conclusion.

* Thanks to Phil for pointing this one out.