Bars That Serve Great Barrel-Aged Cocktails

In Where To Drink | by Donny O’Neill | August 29, 2012

If you see a big barrel behind the bar next time your out, there’s probably a cocktail aging in there. Bars around the country are experimenting with barrel-aging their cocktails. The effect is a richer, mellower flavor. Here are a few places you can go to try one of these delicious libations.

Jeffrey Morgenthaler, bar manager at Clyde Common in Portland, is often credited with starting the barrel-aged cocktail craze. He began experimenting with barrel aging in 2009, with the bar’s aged Negroni. He’s since started aging another cocktail called Remember the Maine.

Bartenders tweak classic cocktails like the “New” Carré (a play on the Vieux Carre) from Ghost Plate and Tap in Denver or the Rusty Rob (part Rob Roy, part Rusty Nail) from Blackbird Bar in San Francisco. They also experiment with lesser known cocktails like Seattle’s Liberty Bar and their barrel-aged Trident. Others get creative with concoctions of their own like the Barrel-Aged Cocktail #3, a moonshine cocktail served up by The Dutch in Miami, and the Loreto, a pisco cocktail from Temple Bar in Cambridge, MA.

When the time comes that you notice a barrel aged cocktail has appeared on your favorite bar’s menu, give it a taste. After all, you can’t knock it until you try it.