What's in the Barrel????

Something Wicked Is Aging: Mad Macks’ Upcoming Barrel Projects

The barrels are here—and we’re filling them with three beers built for patience, transformation, and just the right amount of chaos.

These projects won’t be rushed. Each beer will spend months inside oak, picking up layers of spirit, wood, vanilla, dark fruit, and whatever other beautiful trouble develops along the way.

Barrel #1: Bourbon Barrel Belgian Quad — 10% ABV

First into the shadows is a massive 10% Belgian Quad headed for a freshly emptied bourbon barrel.

Expect layers of dark fruit, caramelized sugar, raisin, plum, and warming Belgian spice. Time in bourbon-soaked oak should bring notes of vanilla, char, and whiskey warmth to an already dangerously smooth beer.

Big, complex, and built for slow sipping—this one will test your judgment in the best possible way.

Barrel #2: Whiskey Barrel Imperial Porter/Stout — 10% ABV

Next up is a 10% Imperial Porter/Stout destined for a whiskey barrel.

This dark beast will bring roasted malt, bittersweet chocolate, coffee, and caramel into the barrel, where it will absorb layers of oak, vanilla, char, and lingering whiskey character. We’re expecting something rich, warming, and deceptively smooth.

Basically, dessert with consequences.

Barrel #3: Barrel-Fermented Flanders Red — 6% ABV

This is where we play the long game.

We’re brewing a 6% Flanders Red—a traditional Belgian-style sour that will ferment and mature inside a whiskey barrel. That means this barrel will be alive. It will bubble. It may hiss. It will probably smell strange.

It will also smell absolutely amazing.

Wild yeast and souring bacteria will slowly transform the beer, building layers of tart red fruit, cherry, plum, oak, and funky complexity. We won’t touch or taste it for at least 10 months. After that, we’ll let the beer tell us whether it’s ready—or whether it needs even more time.

There are no shortcuts with a beer like this. It requires patience, trust, and a willingness to let controlled chaos do its thing.

Three barrels. Three completely different experiments. No rushing.

Now we wait.

Mad Macks Brewing

Agents of Chaos