What’s so special about barrel-aged beers? Let the award-winning Resident Culture team fill you in
When you walk into Resident Culture Brewing Co.’s main taproom in Plaza Midwood, you don’t immediately register the dozens of oaken barrels stacked in dark corners and against the walls. Once you do, you might think, Maybe they’re just decorative. Oh, no. “Every single barrel in this building has liquid in it,” says Erin Jordan, the head brewer. “Every single one.”
We’re meeting here a week after Thanksgiving to talk about Resident Culture’s barrel-aging program, which has developed into one of Charlotte’s biggest and best since the brewery opened in 2017. In early November, a Resident Culture barrel-aged stout won a gold medal in the prestigious Festival of Wood and Barrel-Aged Beers in Chicago, two years after another of the brewery’s beers won gold in its category and Best of Show.
The brewery is committed enough to employ a brewer specifically for barrel-aged beers: Graham Dennis, who left Triple C Brewing in 2022 to become Resident Culture’s barrel manager and who’s joined us this evening. “I’m kind of, like, the shepherd of all the barrels,” Dennis says.
OK, so how many do y’all have in the building?
“I think,” Dennis says, “like 120-ish?”
“And these are just stouts,” Jordan says. “Then we have our sour program, which has—”
“About another 100-ish, yeah.”
That’s a lot of barrels. Why go that hard? What’s so special about barrel-aged beers? What distinguishes them from their kegged and tap-ready cousins, the IPAs, lagers, and ales that typically fill pint glasses and cans?
“It’s our way of honoring brewing history—I mean, beer started in barrels,” Jordan says. “Every barrel is different. They all have their own characteristics—even if it’s the same exact wort going into five different whiskey barrels, they’re all going to taste different.
“We are diligent and intentional through the whole process: from recipe creation and wort development, all the way through the aging process and tasting those barrels regularly, checking in on them, taking data off them … and knowing when they have all the characteristics we’re looking for. And then we can go ahead and pull the trigger.”
In other words, barrel-aged beers are the closest beer gets to wine and whiskey, and not just because of the aging. They’re small-batch, limited-edition endeavors, mostly stouts—they make up perhaps 5% of Resident Culture’s total yield. The barrels are typically made of American oak and sourced from state Alcoholic Beverage Control surplus or “barrel brokers” that collect from vintners and distillers and resell in bulk.
As beer ages, it absorbs the flavors of whatever the barrel once held—bourbon, rye, malbec, apple brandy, whatever. The individuality of each batch allows brewers to bottle and sell it at premium prices; Resident Culture sells 500-milliliter (16.9-ounce) bottles for $22 to $28 depending on the cost of “adjuncts,” or added ingredients. Brewers who master the process earn cachet among hardcore zythophiles and their peers. It takes time, patience, and skill—it’s not that difficult to whip up a competent pale ale. But if you can strike the right notes with an imperial stout you’ve nurtured for 22 months in an old Knob Creek barrel, you’ve demonstrated your brewing expertise. That’s not something a hobbyist is likely to produce.
Dennis, 32, who started brewing as a chemistry major at N.C. State, learned about barrel aging during his five-plus years at Triple C. He initially applied for an assistant brewer’s position at Resident Culture. “But really,” he says, “my passion was with the barrel-aging stuff.” Resident Culture’s barrel-aging program took off with him. He says the process balances the science and art of brewing. You have to be precise in your preparation and meticulous and patient in the aging. But you decide when it needs more time in the barrel, and whether it’s great on its own or would work better in a blend. Within that play-by-ear unpredictability lies the art.
Dennis’ barrel-aging program is hardly the only one in town. Just a couple of weeks before we speak, Resident Culture and three other breweries with barrels—Heist Brewery and Divine Barrel Brewing in NoDa and HopFly Brewing Co. in South End—release a collaborative barrel-aged stout. The beer, Intersecting Perceptions, is a blend of barrel-aged stouts from all four. “I’ll go grab a bottle,” Dennis says.
When he returns to the table, glasses are fetched and portions poured. It’s like port wine, a little too syrupy for me; Dennis observes that two of the four constituent stouts were aged in maple-treated bourbon barrels. Co-owner Amanda McLamb and marketing representative Rachel Sutherland have joined us by now. Hey, it’s a party, which reminds me of another trait of barrel-aged beers McLamb has mentioned: People tend to break out the bottles for special occasions. They’re meant to be shared.
GREG LACOUR is the editor.
Greg Lacour
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