I realize this may be a niave question, but what the heck. I am receiving my barrel tomorrow. SWMBO is out of town so what a great time for it to show up .
That being said I will not be ready to put anything into it for a few weeks. I have read several posts suggesting/stating people are putting bourbon/whisley in the barrel to keep it moist.
May I ask how much should I add? I assume 5 gallons is overkill but would 750 ml be enough? Any thoughts? Thanks
Fill it with hot water and that will keep it fresh and ready to go when you need it. Personally I think it's a bad idea to use whiskey as it already strongly tastes like whiskey so unless you really want to impart a strong whiskey taste, you are just compounding the problem. I'm looking to mellow mine out. Also, you will have to constant keep swishing it around to keep the inside moist unless you fill the whole thing with whiskey. Not the case with water.
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@ eljefe-
I filled mine with a handle of Jim Beam, and just rotated it a 1/4 turn every day. Irrenarzt is correct in saying that you will get a strong whiskey taste too the following beer. I've been letting my barleywine (the first beer I ran through the barrel) mellow out for almost 3 weeks due to the STRONG bourbon taste. My only problem with filling the barrel with hot water is I'm afraid it may strip the bourbon from the wood, maybe the oakiness too? I don't know if either one will happen, but I'd rather let the beer sit to mellow out (since it'll have to age anyway) than potentially stripping out all bourbon/oak.
Good luck!
@ eljefe-
I filled mine with a handle of Jim Beam, and just rotated it a 1/4 turn every day. Irrenarzt is correct in saying that you will get a strong whiskey taste too the following beer. I've been letting my barleywine (the first beer I ran through the barrel) mellow out for almost 3 weeks due to the STRONG bourbon taste. My only problem with filling the barrel with hot water is I'm afraid it may strip the bourbon from the wood, maybe the oakiness too? I don't know if either one will happen, but I'd rather let the beer sit to mellow out (since it'll have to age anyway) than potentially stripping out all bourbon/oak.
Good luck!
Is there a middle ground? A mixture of water and bourbon? I can talk myself into this is a genius idea as well as a really dumb one. I was thinking 1 liter bourbon (cheap) and the rest water. It could prevent the flavor being leeched out.
I would use a bourbon you like the taste of...cause it is gonna end up in your beer. You can always drain it back into the bottle, and re-use it to re-season your barrel between beers. You dropped a lot of money on the barrel, and a lot of time in the batch of beer. A $40 handle of Jack/Jim/etc. isn't really too bad in comparison, esp. if you re-use it several times.
I would use a bourbon you like the taste of...cause it is gonna end up in your beer. You can always drain it back into the bottle, and re-use it to re-season your barrel between beers. You dropped a lot of money on the barrel, and a lot of time in the batch of beer. A $40 handle of Jack/Jim/etc. isn't really too bad in comparison, esp. if you re-use it several times.
Great point, but a handle isn't filling the barrell up, so do I do mixture of a JD or JD/other brand and water, or to your point do I invest in 5 gallons of bourbon or whiskey and just re-use it over and over.
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