Blue Mountain Barrel House

Brewery description

Blue Mountain Barrel House was founded in 2011 by the Smack family as a sister brewery to the original Blue Mountain Brewery, in Afton (Nelson County). The original Blue Mountain Brewery was created in 2007 by Taylor and Mandi Smack, Matt Nucci and a group of fearless shareholders. Blue Mountain introduced the concept of the rural brewery to our corner of the world and set the standard for great beer in Virginia. As the first production arm of the Blue Mountain family, the Barrel House focuses on the higher-end beers from Blue Mountain that require special processes, special ingredients, and a whole lot of patience. Double-Thread Brewed At Barrel House we've revived the lost art of Parti-Gyle brewing, in which a single mash is split to make two beers. Once a standard technique in all of Britain, this process is all but lost to time. By working with our equipment manufacturer, Premier Stainless, of Escondido, California, we've created a custom brewhouse that allows us to vary the flow of wort (sweet juice created from the barley malt mash) from one 30 barrel mash tun to two in-line 15 barrel kettles. By isolating parts of the brewhouse manifold we can change the flow throughout the process to get the exact right blend of gravities (sugar strength that determines final flavors and alcoholic strength) for two separate and very distinct beers at the same time (see Sister Beers below). Barrel Aged Six of the twelve lines of Barrel House beers are aged in once-used charred American White Oak bourbon barrels that come from four sources: the eponymous Maker's Mark Distillery, Austin Nichols Distillery (Wild Turkey), Kirin Brewery's Four Roses Straight Bourbon, and Heaven Hill Distillery (Elijah Craig). Brewmaster Taylor Smack continues barrel aging using the traditional methods he learned while brewing at the Goose Island brewpubs in Chicago under the tutelage of Goose Island's master brewer, who has been credited with inventing the style of bourbon-barrel-aged beer. The barrels, freshly emptied of whiskey, impart charred oak and vanilla flavors to the beers as they breathe in and out of the wood over time while being held in various stages of temperature control. It is a demanding method whose patience is rewarded by unmatchable flavor. Bottle Conditioned All twelve of our lines of beer have live, fermenting beer added to them the morning of bottling. This "krausen" beer referments the still beer in the bottle and allows for the natural pop of the cork upon opening. It creates a thick, dense head unlike the forced carbonation common in most bottled beers. After bottle refermentation the beer is cold-stabilized over several weeks. The live yeast has a positive influence over the developing flavor of this beer as long as it is stored relatively cool and enjoyed by the date indicated on the sides of the cork. Or, for the adventurous, extended cellar aging in proper conditions on some of our "bigger" beers (Dark Hollow, Mandolin, Long Winters Nap and Blitzen) is certainly possible. Sister Beers As each of our mashes births two beers, each beer has a Sister Beer that is indicated on the bottle. And yet it's amazingly difficult to draw parallels between these siblings. Just as brothers and sisters are so often completely opposite personalities, so is each of these brews. From the mother mash, each brew is hopped according to its own needs, fermented with a divergent strain of yeast under different conditions, and barrel-aged or cold stored to the beat of its own drummer.