Fermenting in a barrel

I am thinking about getting a barrel to ferment something strong. I can only brew 5-6 gallons at a time. Do you think there would be an issue if I put 5 gallons in the barrel and then a week later added another 5 gallons?

What size barrel?

15 gallon, so I would be doing 3 batches total.

so fermenting 5 gallons, letting it roll a week then tossing in another 5 gallons of wort, let it roll for a week and then add 5 more? i might be inclined to narrow the timeline, say two or three days apart so you're getting yeast at a higher activity level.

jtakacs said:

so fermenting 5 gallons, letting it roll a week then tossing in another 5 gallons of wort, let it roll for a week and then add 5 more? i might be inclined to narrow the timeline, say two or three days apart so you're getting yeast at a higher activity level.

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Once a week would be best case scenario. With work and kids, weekends are only option to brew. Would this cause any ill effects on the brew? I would hate to waste all that time and ingredients.

If you want 15 gallons at finish. Don't do 5 gallons per week. You will not be happy with the end result.

Does anyone know why this would be a problem? Lambic brewers blend beers together and age them in barrels. Also German brewers will add a young brew to an existing fermenting brew. I have no idea what their procedures are though. I don't see any reason why it would cause a problem as long as I was sanitary and avoided splashing. I would probably be brewing a RIS or Belgian Trippel.
Is there anything I am overlooking?

I'm not saying you can't do it. But what is the reasoning behind it ? Do you only have a 15 gal. primary. Or can you do 3 5gal batches.

I can only brew 5- 6 gallons at a time. I currently use a 6.5 gallon Better Bottle. I would like to purchase a barrel and ferment in that. Just because it sounds awesome. Most barrels I have found are 15 gallons.

I agree 10 and 15 gallons is awesome at 1 time. I currently do 15 to 15.5. The only thing I caught was trying to blend. Yes beer can be blended. But beer an wine are blended post fermentation to obtain the final tastes one wants. I would think it would be haphazard to throw three batches into one fermentor and have a brew which is what you expected. Can it be done ? Probably though honestly I would not try. Look at it on a time line if you will. 1 batch per week. Give 14 days to be reasonably sure fermentation is done. You have 1 batch 1 week later 2. 1 week later 3 that's a total of 5 weeks to finish a med gravity beer. Then add on another week or 2 till bottling or kegging. Plus the time to condition. Almost 3 months total. Can you wait that long ? I would try to figure a way to 1 brew more than 5 gal at a time. Or keep the pipe line going with using 3 or more primaries

I think it can be done and I'm trying to figure out what it is going to do to the beer. I think your biggest problem is with producing a lot of yeast and trub and having the beer sit on the yeast/trub. But if it isn't sitting on it too long, you may be fine.
Also you want be able to fit 15 gals in a 15 gal barrel. You will need a good amount of head space for fermentation.
I would try to do a double brew day and try to get 10-12 gallons done in one day. You'll be surprised how much more efficient it is to do 2 batches back to back.

I would assume adding oxygenated wort to nearly full attenuated beer would cause problems. However i could be wrong. One could hope each new pitch of yeast would clean it all up...Hmm...

I'd be inclined to secondary in the barrel, that way you can have 10-15 gallons ready at the same time (just brew 3 times, 3 weeks, then after the last has fermented out, transfer all to the barrel) You'll need a couple extra buckets to ferment in.

I didn't think about sitting on the yeast issue or that I would have to leave a couple gallons for head space. Thanks for all the answers!

I was just thinking about fermenting a RIS in a barrel this is what I've read from the book American Sours by Michael Tonsmeire.

you can find this passage on in Ch 9 Fermentors and Wood Aging on page 211:

"If you are filling a barrel with beer fermented under pressure, it is helpful to leave 2-3 gal of head space initially, because the rough interior surface can cause foaming. If you are performing primary fermentation in the barrel or adding anything fermentable (e.g., fruit, honey) to the beer at the same time it goes into the barrel then 5 gal of head space should be adequate. In any of these cases, top-off the barrel with reserved beer after the krausen recedes."

so if you get or have access to a 15 gal barrel, you should be able to primary ferment a 10 gal batch of wine, cider or beer in this barrel.

Adding fresh aerated wort to fermented wort definitely wouldn't be ideal and you'd probably have to pitch a fresh yeast culture with each 5g addition to get it to ferment all the way through. The last addition would certainly make a mess as you would have 15g of fermenting beer in a barrel with no headspace.

If it were me I'd brew two 5g batches in one day and ferment them together for 10g total. Mash the first, run it into your kettle and sparge then repeat and boil it all together. If you're kettle's too small mash the second while you're boiling the first.