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mewithstewpid · 01-31-2012, 03:57 PM

Hello sour beer folks, ive searched for this and couldnt find a conclusive answer, and have tured to you for some knowledge.

i am getting an oak barrel (5gal) soon, and after i oak age some beers in it i want to turn it into a sour barrel. pretty standard.

My question is how long can i store the sour beer in the barrel? BrewingTV recently had an episode on sour beers, and said they were going to sour a beer in a barrel for "a long time." I know sour beers need to age for a year or more, but can this be done in a barrel? Wont some beer evaporate?

Also, once inoculated, do you clean the barrel ever? I would imagine that a cake forms on the bottom of the barrel, and was not sure if that should be left alone or dumped out since the bugs are in the wood.

thanks for your help. would love to hear some barrel aging timespans.

Rich

mewithstewpid · 01-31-2012, 04:29 PM

also for a kriek, can you just put cherries in the barrel? that seems like it could get messy.

dcp27 · 01-31-2012, 04:59 PM

yes, some beer will be lost to evaporation (angel's share)

i dont think you'll want to store it in the 5gal barrel the whole time. smaller barrels proportionally get alot more oxygen in so it can make limiting acetic acid tough.

mewithstewpid · 02-03-2012, 01:24 AM

Got the barrel in. Looks awesome. Any other advice?

**dcHokie** · 02-03-2012, 12:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dcp27

yes, some beer will be lost to evaporation (angel's share)

i dont think you'll want to store it in the 5gal barrel the whole time. smaller barrels proportionally get alot more oxygen in so it can make limiting acetic acid tough.

I wouldn't think you'd want to use a 5 gallon barrel for sours for the reason dcp27 mentioned.