“We come from a unique starting point where most of our brewing is malt, water, and hops with only a few adjustments from batch to batch. We make spice beers, but we don’t make them on brew days; we do it on the cold side of things,” says Jay Goodwin of the Rare Barrel.
Among the offerings from this all barrel-aged and blended brewery is Sourtooth Tiger, a wild ale made with copious amounts of dried ginger. “In the beginning, we’d put two pounds in one 59-gallon oak barrel and steep it for a week or two. I imagine for a homebrewer, it would be like steeping in a secondary carboy.”
But soon enough, Goodwin and the team discovered that putting a large amount of assertive ingredients into barrels made it tough to get out later on. They now incorporate a “torpedo-like” device that infuses Sourtooth Tiger with the ginger essence.