Care and Feeding of Whiskey Barrels

So...

I live near O'Dell Brewing, and they recently finished putting out a special run of their Bourbon Barrel Stout. Did I need one? For $35, yes I did. Observe...



So now I'm the owner of one of these barrels and I'm curious if I can brew something in it or is it relegated to being a shop table?

Does anybody know about the care and feeding a barrels? In Colorado it is very dry and the barrel is starting to dry out. I was thinking of rinsing it out and putting some water in it to hold the swell.

Who knows what bacteria might be in there. Could I maybe brew a sour or something in it?

Does anyone have experience or at least unfounded conjecture regarding the future of my barrel?

Just curious, did they say what kind of toast those barrels were?

manoaction said:

Who knows what bacteria might be in there. Could I maybe brew a sour or something in it?

Does anyone have experience or at least unfounded conjecture regarding the future of my barrel?

Click to expand...

If your thinking barrel aged sour beers start here:

http://www.themadfermentationist.com/

He also posts here, but for the life of me I can't off the top of my head remember his userID.

Edit: He posts here as oldsock

Well, I'm not sure what you mean by toast (I'm newb), but the hooch that was it was Old Fitzgerald.

I've heard the advice of rinsing it out, putting water in it and rolling it around on the lawn once a week.

I've also heard that I should take it apart, sand the inside, reassemble and throw a handle or two of vodka inside.

I'm thinking the answer is somewhere in between.

Thanks a lot for the link to the sour guy. I'm betting I'll find good info on sours there.

I've named my barrel Henry and filled him full of water repeatedly trying to get him to seal up (colorado is really dry and the barrel was getting loose fast).

He's holding water pretty good now, and best of all he was full of wood chips that smell delicious. I'm going to use them for smoking some ribs on the grill.