Raw coffee beans are extremely porous and absorb liquid very fast when placed into a moist environment like whiskey barrel.
The devils cut in whiskey barrels refers to the whiskey that has soaked into the barrel staves of a whiskey barrel. When raw coffee beans are poured into a empty whiskey barrel this is the whiskey that coffee will absorb.
The raw coffee beans can be aged for a number of days before they're taken out and roasted. This years Skål Barrel Aged coffee was aged for 8 days.
Once the coffee has been removed from the whiskey barrel it is stored in an airtight container and we roast it as needed. The roasting process burns off all of the alcohol and we're left with just the flavor from the barrel and coffee.
The tasting notes we got from this years run are: Smokey Hazelnut, Pipe Tobacco, Nougat, Whiskey, and Sweet Citrus!
Barrel aging coffee is meant to enhance and compliment the coffee that is being aged. By adding additional flavors that otherwise wouldn't be possible with the coffee on it's own.
Barrel aging coffee is meant to enhance and compliment the coffee that is being aged. By adding additional flavors that otherwise wouldn't be possible with the coffee on it's own.
Every barrel, coffee, and crop year brings something different. So it's always a fun surprise as to what we pull out of a barrel aged coffee!