Barrel-aging at the Yak and Yeti

Yup, first time for the Yak. I have become acquaintances with the Leopold brothers since moving to the Denver area and am impressed by their processes, products and personalities. Here are some photos of my new barrel stand holding Barrel #5 of the Rye Whiskey from Leopold Bros. Todd tells me that I’m the first brewer to put any beer in one of his Rye Whiskey barrels (New Belgian and Avery do not have a shortage of his other flavored barrels).

You typically need something that is strong flavored to hold enough backbone in order to combat the first-time-use flavors from a keg. So the Sherpa Porter is going to be our first candidate. I’m pretty excited because I’ve read a lot about barrel beers and have drank my fair share, but this will be my first attempt to barrel-age something. All my experiences have been toasted oak cubes, chips, spirals and the chips soaked in different types of liquors to simulate being from a liquor barrel.

Since the beer that sits with time develops more flavors, I will probably release a keg every so often and each keg will be slightly different from the last since they all had different exposure times to the wood.

Stay tuned for when we “roll out the barrel”…

Prost!