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Coffee Aged in Whiskey Barrels?

If this were simply storing green coffee beans that have already been processed inside a barrel for a few months, then I am very skeptical of the process adding much value. Since storing dry coffee beans would be quite different from storing liquid whiskey that can permeate the wood and have more chemical interactions.

Their Barrel-Aging Program talks about storing in high-moisture conditions. Storing beans in a high moisture environment might promote some sort of additional fermentation (or mold) and produce different flavors as a result, even without doing this in a barrel that held spirits before. But the process sounds intriguing.
 
I love the way old booze/wine barrels smell.

I'm sure I don't want a nice single origin coffee being modified by anything other then heat. After I have my brewed coffee in my cup, then that is a different story, I can be induced to add a splash.

But if they are using the same beans that starbucks is charring up, maybe that is a different story?

-jim
 
If this were simply storing green coffee beans that have already been processed inside a barrel for a few months, then I am very skeptical of the process adding much value. Since storing dry coffee beans would be quite different from storing liquid whiskey that can permeate the wood and have more chemical interactions.

Their Barrel-Aging Program talks about storing in high-moisture conditions. Storing beans in a high moisture environment might promote some sort of additional fermentation (or mold) and produce different flavors as a result, even without doing this in a barrel that held spirits before. But the process sounds intriguing.

That was my initial thought. Dry beans in a whisky barrel...doesn't seem like much flavor would transfer over to the beans. Thank you for the response!
 
Dark Matter makes great beans (the Unicorn Blood is tops for lattes) and they have a summer seasonal called Cherry Bomb that's super cherry fruit. I've never tried their barrel aged beans before though.
 
Dark Matter makes great beans (the Unicorn Blood is tops for lattes) and they have a summer seasonal called Cherry Bomb that's super cherry fruit. I've never tried their barrel aged beans before though.

The Black Blood, the coffee I picked up, is made from Unicorn Blood and aged in the barrels. I haven't opened it up yet, but I should be next week. I'm getting through this Spyhouse Don Pepe at an alarming rate, it's very good.
 
I first heard about this in 2013 when Ceremony Coffee started aging greens in whiskey and wine barrels. Not wanting to spend too much money on an unknown, expensive coffee, and being a home coffee roaster I opted instead to buy a small bag of whiskey barrel chunks from MoreBeer and I put some of the barrel chunks in a canning jar with green coffee and had another control jar of the same green coffee without the chunks.

The effects of this is not subtle, even though the coffee is exposed to the whiskey barrel chunks before roasting, the chunks have a profound effect on the coffee. This made me realize how important proper storage of green coffee is, as the green coffee readily will pick up aromas and defects due to how you store it. I started aging the coffee for a month but later decided that two weeks might be better. The infused coffee seemed to work better as espresso, I got some strange notes and vapors with pour over, but it was an interesting experiment.

I started a thread about this over on Home-Barista (click here) with quite a bit more detail and pictures and quite a few other roasters tried their own experiments, some using barrels instead of chunks.
 
Did those whiskey barrel chunks have a strong smell on their own before you placed in the sealed glass jar with green coffee? I was surprised to hear that it had such a strong affect.

When I first started home roasting it was recommended that I store my coffee in dark place inside a container that allowed for air flow (e.g. something like a burlap bag). I am glad I did not store along side onions or any other food items.
 
I tried some whiskey barrel coffee (got some for the road too) while on a bike trip on the Oregon coast a couple of years back (forget which roaster/town...). It smelled amazing and actually tasted complex/interesting, though admittedly wouldn't be my everyday choice, since I don't feel good coffee needs flavouring. I agree it's a fun experiment, but like pumpkin spice, etc, probably something that's fun to try once or twice a year.
 
It definitely has a noticeable effect on the coffee. It significantly changes the character.

You can do it at home by buying some oak cubes used for beer/wine making and soak them in whiskey. Then let them dry out and add them to a mason jar with green beans. Let them sit for 1-2 weeks and then roast. You can reuse the cubes multiple times and then resoak them with whiskey.
 
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