San Diego Whisky Barrel Group buy?

This is a question out to everyone in San Diego /Southern Cal area:

I was reading through different post Yesterday and can across one it the classifieds about oak whiskey barrels , that a distillery in NY has on ebay.They are 3,5,and 7 gallon barrels, so perfect for the home brewer.

The shipping they have seemed low, but quite reasonable for individual barrels, so I contacted them if it was correct, and they said yes shipping to San Diego would be $20 - $30, depending on the barrel size.

I also Inquired about and shipping multiple barrels by freight, and they said they can do that, and would give a discount for a bulk buy. Right now they have buy it now prices of 100 for the 7, 90 for the 5, and 80 for the 3.

If any one is interested let me know, and if we get enough people together may be we can place an order, and get the cost down by combining shipping/bulk ordering. Right now I'd like to get two 5's for my self.

I may be down, but I need to kind of see if having a barrel would be sustainable (ie cleaning, storing, maintenance, etc)

Why do they put whiskey in such small barrels? Link is down though, they removed the item. After I am able to brew bigger batches I am going to do a real bourbon barrel brew, of course not anytime soon. I wonder if I can manage to get one cheaper than $75. At least I can pick it up myself. Good luck with your barrels.

ODaniel said:

Why do they put whiskey in such small barrels? Link is down though, they removed the item. After I am able to brew bigger batches I am going to do a real bourbon barrel brew, of course not anytime soon. I wonder if I can manage to get one cheaper than $75. At least I can pick it up myself. Good luck with your barrels.

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They are the distillery-equivalent of a small microbrewery... my guess is that they use the small barrels for experimental batches and the like.

bhatchable said:

I may be down, but I need to kind of see if having a barrel would be sustainable (ie cleaning, storing, maintenance, etc)

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I've been getting into sour beer, and would like to set up a barrel culture that I can keep running. as well as a second for aging some of my darker beers, and these size barrels are much more desirable than a 60gal barrel. Thats my idea for a barrel. But yes i can see it being a new time sink.

I think cleaning a barrel consists of filling it with 180ºF water for 20 min.

Do these barrels have spigots?

bhatchable said:

Do these barrels have spigots?

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They don't, but they said they can provide them if you want . They do say that they will clean and make sure they are water tight before they ship. So you wont have to worry about re conditioning the barrel.

If that link was to Tuthilltown they make really good whiskeys. Baby bourbon is my favorite. Its actually all corn so not a true bourbon. They use added enzymes for all of the conversion. Caution: $40 a tenth! The small barrels age the spirit more quickly than large, so they are able to get product out more quickly. Don't be fooled, these spirits are so clean going in that they don't really need an extended aging. With american style whiskeys the oak is the dominant taste, and barrel subtleties are much less important than, say, a scotch. Beware the oak will not be depleted as much as a 4year full sized bourbon barrel, so factor that in when you are figuring how much oak you want. I would like to try their white dog but can't find it anywhere.

I believe they used to get their barrels from gibbs, which is a very good manufacturer, but they are 150ish bucks new so you are not saving much by getting used. Of course the used aspect is beneficial in some regards.

There is no maximum amount of corn that can be used in a whiskey and still call it a bourbon. There is a minimum (51% I believe) plus the Tuthilltown site calls some of their 100% corn aged whiskeys bourbons. There is a minimum aging requirement too I believe, and no charcoal filtering allowed. Does anyone know if the barrels are still available despite the ad on ebay going away?

When I talked to them last they had Quite a few, but I did not get a lot of interest, so I did not follow up. I was up to 3 of the 5 gallons, Thats including the two I was looking to get.

I'll drop them and Email and see what they say.

Yeah you're right it can be all corn, but all the bourbons I know of, save Tuthilltown, have some rye, wheat (Makers), and barley malt for conversion. The all corn ones usually say 'corn whiskey' or 'spirits distilled from corn' if it's white dog. Charring the barrels allows for some filtering to occur. If the grist is all corn, you'd have to use added enzyme or malt the corn, which, because malted corn doesn't have much enzyme, means that all the corn must be malted. I don't know if there is a minimum age requirement, but probably not as THT is only a few months....

It's really just semantics I suppose.

They still have Barrels, I might just pick up ,one or two my self, but I'll probable wait a few more weeks. I have enough projects going on right now.

Items from tuthilltown