Don't Barrel Age Me, Bro!

The other day we were down at Bottlecraft for Greg's birthday and Brian was talking about some of the new beers they had recently received. He mentioned that they had some new barrel aged selections and I said that I was over the whole barrel aged beer trend. Greg commented to me that  I should've explained why as I ended up just sounding negative for no good reason so I figure I'll write about it here.

I am bored with barrel aged beers. If I wanted a drink that tasted like bourbon I would just go pour myself a shot of bourbon and not be grabbing a beer. I know that there are a lot of people who do enjoy the added flavor that barrel aging brings to a beer but I am finding that I am not really one of them. This surprises some of my friends as I regularly drink Imperials, Doubles and other high alcohol beer styles but it is specifically the "burn" that is often times present in the barrel aged beers that turns me off.  For me, the beer loses something when the other flavors get drowned out by that hard alcohol burn amd I'd rather be drinking most any other beer style.

All that said I am not a huge fan of most "extreme" beers - overly bitter hoppier-than-thou IPAs, Saisons that smell like a barnyard, and Sours that are tarter than sucking on a lemon are on my shit list as well. It's strange then that the style I have been ordering a lot of lately has been sour beer, I just don't like the super sour ones. Because really, if I wanted a beer that tasted like a Sweet Tart I could just throw a pack of them in a can of Pabst and be done with it.