Some Hunter Valley chardonnay is giving a Five Barrel Brewing beer a bit of a helping hand.
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Owner Phil O’Shea picked up two French oak barrels from the Hunter to use in his beermaking.
“They’d been emptied the day before I filled them and when they came down here, they were still fresh and super fruity,” Mr O’Shea said.
“If you rolled the barrel around there was still a little bit of liquid in the bottom.”
He put some of his golden ale into the two 300-litre barrels and left it there for a month.
The idea was to see what flavour characters the oak barrels added to the beer.
“You really get the chardonnay quality coming out with that fruitiness and the light amount of oak that you wouldn’t normally get in a beer,” he said.
Mr O’Shea said he hoped it would appeal to people who come into the Keira Street brewery who say they don't like beer.
“Having a beer with wine-like qualities may just encourage them a bit more to try something different,” he said.