Wild Barrel Creation and Maintenance?

Hi all,

I just got a new (to me) 5 gallon barrel and am hoping to use it as a home for some wild bugs. I was thinking that maybe I could age beer in there for a short time to inoculate it and then once thoroughly inoculated remove it to a carboy.

So to do this i need to learn a few things that i'm hoping the community already knows:

1: Since this barrel has been used and is not "clean" what is the best method for cleaning it?

2: Once it is clean what is the best way to get a solid mix of bugs to live in it?

3: What are the best bugs for this type of project?

4: What is the best way to maintain these bugs in the barrel without killing them, or introducing molds and other more unpleasant things when there is no beer in it/must it have beer in it at all times?

Thanks!

If you're using it for sours, you may not really need to "clean" it. How does it smell? If it was rinsed well, and doesn't smell like vinegar, you may be able to use it as is. If you are concerned, you can do an overnight soak in soda ash (sodium carbonate), followed by a soak/rinse with a citric acid solution to neutralize it. I don't have the amounts right now, but a quick search should pull them up.

I would certainly, though, fill it up with boiling water to check for leaks and to rinse the inside. A quick rinse with boiling water before filling will get any residual crap out.

I got mine from a distillery and aged two clean beers in it before I soured it. To sour, I made a sour beer where I did the primary fermentation with brewers yeast and bottle dregs and roeselare. After primary fermentation was over, I racked the beer into the barrel. It was in there for too long (9mo), but I added various dregs to the barrel along the way. The beer was quite sour after that time, and the oak was strong but not overwhelming.

Good luck!

BigPerm said:

If you're using it for sours, you may not really need to "clean" it. How does it smell? If it was rinsed well, and doesn't smell like vinegar, you may be able to use it as is. If you are concerned, you can do an overnight soak in soda ash (sodium carbonate), followed by a soak/rinse with a citric acid solution to neutralize it. I don't have the amounts right now, but a quick search should pull them up.

I would certainly, though, fill it up with boiling water to check for leaks and to rinse the inside. A quick rinse with boiling water before filling will get any residual crap out.

I got mine from a distillery and aged two clean beers in it before I soured it. To sour, I made a sour beer where I did the primary fermentation with brewers yeast and bottle dregs and roeselare. After primary fermentation was over, I racked the beer into the barrel. It was in there for too long (9mo), but I added various dregs to the barrel along the way. The beer was quite sour after that time, and the oak was strong but not overwhelming.

Good luck!

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What size is your barrel? Hoping to get a 15 gallon one here soon.

5 gals.

Fwiw, a group of dudes and I just got 2 59 gallon wine barrels. We aren't treating it at all, just going in with 60 gals of beer. All will have been fermented with souring blends, though.

how do you keep a sour barrel "clean" when not in use? do you just let it air dry? Fill it with booze?

I'd like to avoid sulfates...

The best answer is to have something ready to go into it.

I have a 15 gallon used bourbon barrel that I soured after two clean beers. Here is my advice:

If the barrel smells nice you can fill it with sour beer or. Lean beer and pitch dregs.

If it's been a while since it has been dumped you'll want to wet the barrel before filling it with beer to check for leaks. Mine was a bourbon barrel, and I didn't want to wash the booze flavors away, so for several days I brought the barrel outside, sprayed it down with the hose, and left it on its head with a pool of water on top.

A 5 gallon barrel is going to get oak flavors in as little as two weeks, so you may have to cycle several beers through it before you can age a batch in there for a while.

The best thing for the barrel is to never dry it out. If you want to leave it empty for a while, fill it with a citric acid solution instead

What about a weak alcohol solution of water and say vodka?

TipsySaint said:

What about a weak alcohol solution of water and say vodka?

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Weak or even strong alcohol solutions don't do much good to kill bugs in a barrel if you suspect them being there.

From what I've read letting them dry out is a no-no, they should remain wet, and filled with water when left idle for a longer time. I do think sulfites are added to the water, but not much remains of them after dumping before refilling.

Anecdote:
Our club got a rum barrel that had been used for aging beer by a brewery. After its last use it had been stored dry, likely for several weeks or even months before we received it. We soaked it with 6 handles of rum (40%) over 6 weeks to "pickle" it and hoping to kill any (bad) bugs if present. We then filled it with 11 corny kegs of an English Old Ale which were all taste tested and found good for their purpose. The barrel went sour on us within 3 months with a fairly heavy presence of acetic acid likely due to acetobacter that must have been living in the wood. It didn't taste bad, just not what we intended. I have been blending and drinking some over time. It's definitely unique.