We love barrel-aged beers. We also love well-crafted spirits. When these two things come together, magic can happen (see the iconic Bourbon County Stout for proof of that).
But now, distillers are taking things one step farther. While American bourbons must by law be aged in first-use charred oak barrels, no such restrictions exist for whiskeys, and the sky’s the limit for such spirits as tequila.
Enter creative distillers such as Jameson and Jose Cuervo, who struck up relationships with brewers and provided them with barrels for aging beer with one caveat—that the barrels be returned to the distiller after they were used for beer.
Jose Cuervo connected with Fort Collins, Colorado-based Odell Brewing, and Odell aged their Myrcenary double IPA in tequila barrels to produce Myrcenario tequila-barrel–aged IPA. Once the barrels returned to Jose Cuervo, they were put to use aging their signature tequila, Tradicional, for a special “ale-cask finish” edition.
Jameson, on the other hand, connected with Franciscan Well Brewery in Cork, Ireland, and provided them with barrels to age stout before those barrels returned to Jameson to be refilled with their classic Irish whiskey.
How do they taste? Cuervo is not typically our first pick of tequila, but the ale-cask treatment settled and smoothed the rough and spiky spirit into a warming sipper that was enjoyable without salt or lime.
The Jameson? Even more pronounced, with a rich nose of chocolate and roast that demanded to be enjoyed neat.
American craft brewer-distillers such as New Holland (Holland, Michigan) and Anchor (San Francisco, California) have explored the same territory in small batches, aging their own beer in barrels that housed their spirits, then returning those barrels to spirits after they housed beer. And while it might seem like a gimmick, the taste bears out a different story—the additional depth and smooth drinkability make these beer barrel–aged spirits worth the small premium they command.