How big is my barrel?

[jphebbie2]

So my brother got a oak barrel from his neighbor who made wine with it one time and decided it wasnt for him. Since my bro has a few different full size barrel things going on with his home brew club he gave it to me. it was stored pretty well and seems to be in decent shape. He was told its 5 gallons, but i feel otherwise.

The head is 11.5 inches and its 21 inches long. I think it might be 10 gal but not sure as it is still leaking/rehydrating now. Ill be able to figure it out soon enough but Im excited about having my first barrel and am planning out beers for it as we speak. Just trying to see what I am getting in to! probably doing an oaked saison, IPA and Imperial russian stout in the next few months then after that a barrel aged sour and hopefully build a good sour barrel out of it from then on. getting excited for a new side of brewing!

Thanks
JP

 

[DrinkDR]

According to your measurements, it's 9.4 gallons.

 

[chromados]

That is right around the size of my 8 gallon barrel, its 21 inches long by 12.5 inches wide. Hope that helps.

Chromados

 

[CanadianQuaffer]

All measurements in inches:

(radius x radius) x Pi x Height / 231 = gallons

 

[crazybluerider]

All measurements in inches:

(radius x radius) x Pi x Height / 231 = gallons

That would work if barrels had straight sides.

Its going to take a little fancier math for something with a bowed side.

 

[CanadianQuaffer]

All you do in that case is measure the smallest radius and the largest radius and take an average of the two to use as the radius in your equation.

 

[jphebbie2]

ya I gathered its about 10 gallons so I am going to brew a double batch, as I have the capacity to brew 10g but would have to ferment separately and Ill just make sure to have enough to fill the barrel. Just out of curiousity, how much dead space should you leave in a 10gallon barrel? about a half gallon?

Thanks
JP-

 

[chromados]

ya I gathered its about 10 gallons so I am going to brew a double batch, as I have the capacity to brew 10g but would have to ferment separately and Ill just make sure to have enough to fill the barrel. Just out of curiousity, how much dead space should you leave in a 10gallon barrel? about a half gallon?

Thanks
JP-

You dont want any dead space at all, thats where people run into trouble in using barrels. You will also lose a lot of beer from evaporation so you will want to have an extra 2 gallons or so that you can use to top it off over the time that it is in the barrel. For example I brewed a 10 gallon batch and filled my 8 gallon barrel and over the last year I have already run out of extra so I have to brew another 2.5 gallon batch just so I can keep topping it off for the next year.

Chromados

 

[jphebbie2]

Ok that is a good point! Thank you
Jp