Wooden Barrels

A buddy of mine is interested in making some wooden barrels for his home and asked if I wanted him to try and make one for fermentation.

What woods would be interesting? I was thinking spruce or maple. We don't have a lot of hardwood trees in our area so those are a little more expensive. What about Western Larch or Fir or Pine?

i would think you would want something with a fruit in the name or a hardwood... something you would use for smoking meats. I would prefer white oak or hickery. maple might work but the evergreens you listed i would think might give an off taste (thats why i dont think your supposed to smoke with them)

Someone can correct me if i am wrong.

I am a burbon guy and age my stouts with burbon barrel chips to give a cask aged flavor so i would prefer "chared white oak" as required to make burbon, but to each their own. just my 0.02 as always try it and see if you like it!

PS: i wish you luck getting them to seal and be water tight!

Woodford Reserve did a bourbon that they finished in maple barrels. They said the barrels leaked a lot. I would not use pine at all. All wine, whisky barrels are oak. Are you going to ferment in the barrels or use them for aging?

White Oak. Definitely.

Fruit wood seems like a good idea.

I was going to use it for fermentation, secondary and aging.

Thanks for the input. We will test it with water first of course.

I'm not sure how much it matters, but some softwoods have resins that can have harsh flavors. Another thing to watch out for is that some tress that come from orchards will soak up the pesticides that the trees are sprayed with. I can't imagine that tasting too good...but then again, I got this info from what looks like a blog, so I may be full of it.

http://www.smokinlicious.com/blog/?p=5

The_Dog_42 said:

I'm not sure how much it matters, but some softwoods have resins that can have harsh flavors. Another thing to watch out for is that some tress that come from orchards will soak up the pesticides that the trees are sprayed with. I can't imagine that tasting too good...but then again, I got this info from what looks like a blog, so I may be full of it.

http://www.smokinlicious.com/blog/?p=5

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That is good to know, thanks!

About a year ago I was in a training class with some people from Independant Stave Company. They make barrels and ship them all over the world. I asked why they used American or French white oak only and if they could use a different wood (I was interested in walnut). I'm not sure if he really knew, but he said that the microstructure of the white oak was superior and other woods would not hold liquids well. I don't know how well other woods would work.

awesome. thanks for all the input.