SPIRIT BARRELS

Shucking their exteriors, like hermit crabs swapping shells on the sea floor, these barrels are moved around from place to place and providing shelter for various spirits and now, sour beer.

The Bourbon industry in the USA produces huge amounts of oak barrels which can only be used once and are then discarded. This means there’s a lot of ex-bourbon casks available for other industries, rum, gin, tequilla, scotch whisky and of course beer.

For the most part we use ex red wine barrels when maturing sour beer. We’re looking for a touch of barrel character, but we reuse these barrels over and over, they are a neutral vessel for harbouring our wild yeasts and bacteria, with negligible wine influence.

Spirit barrels are a step apart, a much bigger flavour is imparted on the beer from the wood. When these barrels arrive they are still wet with spirit and they leave a firm mark on the final product. These flavours are bold and striking, we want to augment the delicious character of various spirits with complimentary flavours in our sour beers.

Currently smuggled in amongst the wine barrels in our store we have Speyside Whisky, Rum, Tequila, Bourbon and even Gin barrels. Using these as inspiration we are creating recipes to compliment and contrast with the residual spirit flavours imparted in the beer.

You can expect only a handful of these cocktail inspired, spirit barrel releases per year with a limited availability. We’ll keep you well informed as to when they will be released but you’ll have to be quick to the bar to pick up your bottles / get a taste on draft.

Here's a sneak peak at the label designs for the series...

Our Spirit barrels come to us from Rocky Mountain Barrel Company in Colorado, USA and Speyside Cooperage right here in Scotland.