Four Peaks Barrel 472

Designed by our head of brewing innovation, Melissa Osborne, this beer is our attempt to answer a question pondered by many a brewer after going overboard with the shift beers: Can you make a beer that tastes like it’s been aged in bourbon barrels without actually putting any liquid inside a barrel?

We started with a dry bourbon barrel from Four Roses, filled it with 100 pounds of malted barley, and waited until the hoops were literally falling off—about seven months—for the grain to absorb flavors of caramel and cocoa from the oak. Then we combined the now-bourbony barley with an experimental hop variety called HBC 472, which has whiskeylike flavors of woody vanilla and coconut.

At no point did this liquid ever touch a barrel—but you’d never be able to tell.