Fresh Whisky Oak Barrel help needed

[BigFloppy]

My local liquor store is getting me a fresh (used only for whisky) oak whisky barrel to help me with my brewing obsession.

O M G this thing is freakin huge, it's 55 gallon

A couple of questions arise...

Do I need to do any pre-conditioning?
Do I need to totally fill this to keep its integrity?
Will air conditioning hurt or am I better trying to keep in the garage?
What other "tips" can the experienced barrel masters give me?

 

[Crayfish]

I am by no means an expert but have used a 5 gallon rum barrel and 30 gallon brandy barrel before and can relate what I did.

For the 5 gallon barrel, I added about half a gallon of boiling water swished it around, and then dumped into a pot and then reserved this liquid in a jar (it was basically rum). I let the barrel sit with a bung in the hole unitl my beer was ready (probably 2 weeks). I did this to reduce some of the hotness I smelled in the barrel. It had been freshly dumped and was very boozy. The beer (a pumpkin ale) turned out beautifully.

For the 30 gallon barrel, I simply added beer. Judging by what i experienced with the 5 gallon barrel, I figured a reduced surface area to volume ratio would dial down the booziness on its own. This beer (a golden ale) is 3 months in and tastes great. I pitched ECY20 last weekend so it is now in for the long haul.

I filled both about 85%-95% full. That seemed to work fine for me. It does evaporate more quickly then I expected. I would try to fill it as much as possible (55 gallons is a daunting task, maybe ask some buddies to help?).

Good luck.

 

[jdhasse]

Do I need to do any pre-conditioning?
Do I need to totally fill this to keep its integrity?
Will air conditioning hurt or am I better trying to keep in the garage?
What other "tips" can the experienced barrel masters give me?

We are probably going to get a variety of opinions on this.

IMO, if there is still whiskey in the barrel no other conditioning will be needed. The liquor will keep the barrel sanitized and the wood intact, but you should roll the barrel around every day or so to make sure all the wood stays moist. This is where we may get varying opinions.

If you are worried the barrel has dried out I would fill it with hot (180+) water to sanitize and also to make sure it isn't leaking.

As far as I know, many (not all) barrel warehouses are not temperature controlled so the garage would be fine but so would a basement or anywhere inside for that matter.

You do want to fill barrel as full as you can, but I never topped off the barrel when some evaporated or was lost due to me pulling samples out of it. This is also where I think we will get varying opinions.

Depending on strength of brew and length of aging I would suggest kegging the brew as the yeast won't be viable/strong enough to bottle condition unless you add fresh yeast at time of bottling.

Keep us posted, barrels are loads of fun!

 

[heckler73]

unless you're brewing 55 gallon batches, I'd cut it up and share the pieces around to use in 5 gallon batches.