Used liquor barrels

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Steelers77

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* We have Rum, Brandy, Whiskey and Honey Liquor barrels. You have to check the thread to know what we currently have in stock.

I have a some used barrels used to make a honey liquor or Rum. They are 5 gallon barrels with a light char. The liquor was made with dark brown sugar and water. When they were done aging, the barrels were dumped and blended with honey. No honey was in the barrel. They are $110+shipping.

These barrels were dumped today so I'd like to get them sent out ASAP. Let me know here or send me an email, these are not on my site.

Let me know

John

3000-barrel.jpg
 
They do not have water in them, thew were emptied last night and they will stay wet for about a week. When you receive them, you can add whatever spirts you like to keep them wet until use.
 
Got mine yesterday a well. Made an 9% IPA this weekend that I'll be oaking in one and the other is going to be a sour barrel
 
You guys are making me drool, maybe we can do a barrel ale swap. I brewed an IPA for the barrel last week but I came up short so I will brew something this weekend to go in it.
 
Mine is supposed to show up tomorrow! I will be making an imperial stout this weekend to throw in it.
 
I got mine Monday. Both in great shape. Put a gallon of bourbon in each right away. My brother and I brewed up some massive imperial stouts to put in them for a few months. My OG was 1.146. Hoping to get down to around 1.030 over the next month. Thanks again. I'll come up by you guys to try my brew when its done. September-ish...
 
These barrels are awesome. I love mine. I cant wait to put in my barleywine.

This is actually the only piece of brew gear I have that SWMBO will let me have in the house, out in the open. It is in such good shape, she is using it as a decoration in the house while it will age my beer!
 
John, I sent you an email yesterday, if you have one left Ill take it. Brandon. I can probably even pick it up this week.
 
To anyone who has one of these or a similar barrel- what is the process of getting one of these ready to store beer? I've never used barrels for aging before and want to make sure I take the appropriate steps.

thanks!
 
I asked the same question of a professional brewer buddy of mine who works exclusively in barrels. Here's the response I got:

"OK, so your starting off with a "clean" barrel as it still has spirit in it. Make sure the barrel is hard bunged with wood or has a solid bung, wedged in tight in the bung hole. Don't remove it to smell the barrel no matter how much you want to... or try not to too much at least. Since it has spirit in it, that spirit is sitting down in the bottom not protecting the other parts. The spirit and keeping the barrel sealed is the best protection for now. You want to keep that spirit character, so you don't want to clean just maintain how it is now. Roll the barrel around every few days so that you are evenly dispersing the spirit around keeping the barrel soaked and the spirit everywhere to stop any bugs that may have fallen inside the barrel when the barrel was emptied and at any other time during its usage and transport etc...

Try to maintain the barrel like this and get it filled with beer as soon as possible. After brewing each batch depending on how many it takes to fill the barrel, transfer from the fermenter to the barrel. don't let any transfer hose or device touch any part of the outside of the barrel. Transfer the beer quick, be sanitary using 70% rubbing alcohol to spray parts, use gloves spray the alcohol around surfaces before and after and then spray the bung before you put it back into the barrel bung hole with alcohol as well. Also this all presumes the beer is bacteria free as well. So when you brew, chill the beer quickly in a well cleaned and sanitized fermenter and don't remove the airlock at any time to allow surrounding air in. "
 
Hey guys,
Looks like we will be getting 3 5 gallon heavy char rum barrels from the distillers in March.

These are slightly different (thicker staves) and more expensive than the ones we just sold. If you are interested let me know they will be $115 + shipping.
John
 
Any discount for repeat buyers?? :) Put me on the list for a rum barrel kind sir.

For everyone else, this seller is a dream to work with. Highly recommended!
 
Hey guys,
Looks like we will be getting 3 5 gallon heavy char rum barrels from the distillers in March.

These are slightly different (thicker staves) and more expensive than the ones we just sold. If you are interested let me know they will be $115 + shipping.
John

In. If you still have my PM's you have my info, if not let me know and I'll resend it.
 
@Virant- GREAT info man thanks so much. Quick question though. These barrels have been recently dumped, so Im guessing when we receive them they'll be empty. By what your buddy said, do you think it would be best to pour some spirits into it when i receive it and then proceed accordingly? I just want to make sure i preserve that character.

Thanks for your help!
 
@Virant- GREAT info man thanks so much. Quick question though. These barrels have been recently dumped, so Im guessing when we receive them they'll be empty. By what your buddy said, do you think it would be best to pour some spirits into it when i receive it and then proceed accordingly? I just want to make sure i preserve that character.

Thanks for your help!

The barrel that I recieved actually contains some raw spirits from the distillery still. If yours doesn't, then yes, I would add some.
 
mine had a very little bit of residual liquor in it, but smelled incredibly of rum. I added about 1-2 cups of rum to it to keep it sanitized and plan to fill it with an old ale I'll be brewing next weekend and leaving in for several months. Great quality stuff as usual John!
 
mine had a very little bit of residual liquor in it, but smelled incredibly of rum. I added about 1-2 cups of rum to it to keep it sanitized and plan to fill it with an old ale I'll be brewing next weekend and leaving in for several months. Great quality stuff as usual John!

One thing to consider is the surface area to volume ratio as opposed to a 32 gallon barrel. The local distillery by my house uses their 10 gallon barrels for a single malt whiskey and ages for 7 months, which they claim gives them a similar taste to a 10 year old single malt.

You're going to develop a lot of barrel character in the beer in a short period of time. Give it a shot after a week or so and see what you think before potentially ruining a batch of beer.
 
One thing to consider is the surface area to volume ratio as opposed to a 32 gallon barrel. The local distillery by my house uses their 10 gallon barrels for a single malt whiskey and ages for 7 months, which they claim gives them a similar taste to a 10 year old single malt.

You're going to develop a lot of barrel character in the beer in a short period of time. Give it a shot after a week or so and see what you think before potentially ruining a batch of beer.

Oh I know its a much higher rate, didn't realize it was quite that high tho (nearly 20x!). I guess I'll be tasting it along the way earlier than planned, but its gunna be sitting for quite some time so I think I'll be OK either way.
 
One thing to consider is the surface area to volume ratio as opposed to a 32 gallon barrel. The local distillery by my house uses their 10 gallon barrels for a single malt whiskey and ages for 7 months, which they claim gives them a similar taste to a 10 year old single malt.

You're going to develop a lot of barrel character in the beer in a short period of time. Give it a shot after a week or so and see what you think before potentially ruining a batch of beer.

The stiller actually ages in these barrels for 4 months, so that gives you an idea of how fast these barrels impart flavor. I would agree with having multiple beers being ready for the barrel because of the speed in which it will impart flavor, age the first for a couple of weeks, then rack it out and put the next beer in. We use 5 gallon (new) barrels for wine and the first batch run through it took only about 2 weeks to be oaked, the next was about a month, and so on.
 
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