CadillacAndy
Well-Known Member
I'm in the process of planning out my solera project and had a quick question about how to prepare the barrel.
A little background info - it's a 59 gallon, used, French Oak red wine barrel. It was sitting empty for about 3 years. I brought it home and filled it with water to get it rehydrated and make sure there were no leaks. It's currently sitting outside on my porch in the 95F heat, so I'd like to get it in to my basement as soon as possible. I'm planning on getting it filled with beer within the next month. Also, for what it's worth, I'm going to do the primary in 32 gallon Brute garbage cans, so the beer that goes in to the barrel will have already gone thru at least 1 month of primary.
So here's the question - should I use a sulphur stick before I take it inside? Is sulphur necessary if I'm not planning on storing it for an extended amount of time? Or would it just be a good idea to kill off everything, then introduce my own bugs? Should I dump in 5 gallons of Starsan to get the surface sanitized? Should I just not worry about it and just take it inside and just get it filled as soon as I can?
I have a whole bunch of other solera questions, so thanks in advance for the help!
A little background info - it's a 59 gallon, used, French Oak red wine barrel. It was sitting empty for about 3 years. I brought it home and filled it with water to get it rehydrated and make sure there were no leaks. It's currently sitting outside on my porch in the 95F heat, so I'd like to get it in to my basement as soon as possible. I'm planning on getting it filled with beer within the next month. Also, for what it's worth, I'm going to do the primary in 32 gallon Brute garbage cans, so the beer that goes in to the barrel will have already gone thru at least 1 month of primary.
So here's the question - should I use a sulphur stick before I take it inside? Is sulphur necessary if I'm not planning on storing it for an extended amount of time? Or would it just be a good idea to kill off everything, then introduce my own bugs? Should I dump in 5 gallons of Starsan to get the surface sanitized? Should I just not worry about it and just take it inside and just get it filled as soon as I can?
I have a whole bunch of other solera questions, so thanks in advance for the help!