Help with a 53 gallon Bourbon Barrel club event

My club has recently obtained a 53 gallon bourbon barrel from a local brewery who supports us. The brewery got the barrel from Jack Daniels and used it twice for a BB Stout. They have since gifted it to us for what ever we want to use it for. As a club we have voted to go the traditional BB beer despite my pleading to inoculate with wild bugs for a huge souring project. (they promised it could happen on the 2nd or 3rd go-around)

The president has decided that we will do it like this.... The first 10 people to respond will be responsible for brewing a 5 gallons batch of beer. Once primary fermentation has ended and the krausens have fallen, we will meet on an already picked out date in march to transfer all batches into the barrel at the same time. The 10 participants of the project will be allowed to taste everyone else's beer before adding it to the barrel to check for unwanted off flavors and give their thumbs up. When it is all said and done the 10 of us will be able to take home 5 gallons of the BB Ale.

Anyway here is where I would like your opinions. The beer to be used is completely up to the brewer as long as it is around 9% ABV or more and falls in a generic "Old Ale" category and does not use any "bugs" or bacteria or spices. So Imperial Stouts, Big Porters, Scotch Ale, Barley Wines......

I have never done this before and I am sure whatever the final product is after sitting in a BB for a month or two will be good. What are your thoughts on combining beers like Scotch Ale, Stouts, and Barley Wines together???? Would we be smarter to pick one of the four?

First and only BB project that I saw was that each person brews the same recipe, a tasting occurs after primary fermentation, and all that are blessed go into the barrel.

could be awesome, could be terrible. Probably a safer bet to all agree on the same recipe (or at very least the same style)

We did this 3 years ago and we all brewed the same recipe and it was fermented in several 5-7 gallon fermenters. When ready we tasted it for bugs but found none so we put it in the barrel and waited 8 months and it was awesome. It was a rye ipa in a rye whiskey barrel. Wow, it aged really well too!

tootal said:

We did this 3 years ago and we all brewed the same recipe and it was fermented in several 5-7 gallon fermenters. When ready we tasted it for bugs but found none so we put it in the barrel and waited 8 months and it was awesome. It was a rye ipa in a rye whiskey barrel. Wow, it aged really well too!

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An IPA....nice. I'm looking foreword to this. Like I said,
I really don't think it is going to come out as gross...I had just never heard of mixing styles like this but "they" insist that it will work fine. I also suggested a big belgian ale but my voice is always minority based on my more "extreme" flavors preferences