How to sanitize barrel?

[ILMSTMF]

Hello,

Have a half gallon micro oak barrel that has been used for several batches of bourbon and, lastly, an imperial stout. That beer was in there 7 months ago. Barrel has been kept hydrated since including top ups.

Just emptied out the resulting brownish, nice smelling water and refilled with very hot water. Plan is to put the barley wine in there next. So...

How to sanitize? StarSan? Cheap vodka? In what order? For how long?

Thanks!

 

[Double_D]

You could burn a sulfur candle in there. Or use potassium metabisulfide.


Otherwise, I'm under the impression including the hot water and having kept it filled with water in the interim you're good to go. Not keeping it filled was the mistake I made...

 

[nettekdl]

Recently listening to an episode of the sour hour on brewing network they strongly advised against keeping normal water in a barrel more than 48 hours as it can cause mold and bacteria growth. I have aways used a combo of metabisulfate and citric acid in my barrel

 

[Double_D]

Recently listening to an episode of the sour hour on brewing network they strongly advised against keeping normal water in a barrel more than 48 hours as it can cause mold and bacteria growth. I have aways used a combo of metabisulfate and citric acid in my barrel

Thinking back, I remember that the metabisulfide was suggested for storage. I was pretty sad about what happened to my beer.

 

[ILMSTMF]

Recently listening to an episode of the sour hour on brewing network they strongly advised against keeping normal water in a barrel more than 48 hours as it can cause mold and bacteria growth. I have aways used a combo of metabisulfate and citric acid in my barrel

FUUUUUUUUUUU**...

Well. Don't have any of that stuff on hand. Any common household stuff I could use in the meantime to unscrew what I've possibly screwed?
Thanks

 

[Subdivisions]

FUUUUUUUUUUU**...

Well. Don't have any of that stuff on hand. Any common household stuff I could use in the meantime to unscrew what I've possibly screwed?
Thanks

Maybe a half gallon of starsan solution?? Certainly better than plain water.

 

[Jwin]

A half gallon barrel, fill it with skol vodka. But I know much less than others here on this topic...

 

[TNGabe]

Half gallon barrel? Like for a St Bernard or something?

 

[brewmax25]

Don't put starsan in the barrel. The wood is pourous and will absorb some of Chem and could leach back out of the wood into your beer. There really is no way to sanitize wood. My advice would be to fill it with some hard booze, whiskey or something and let it sit. That's still not a sure shot at cleaning the barrel but it's he best you can do. And afterwards you'll be able to fill it with a beer and get that bourbon barrel aged flavor.

 

[ILMSTMF]

Don't put starsan in the barrel. The wood is pourous and will absorb some of Chem and could leach back out of the wood into your beer. There really is no way to sanitize wood. My advice would be to fill it with some hard booze, whiskey or something and let it sit. That's still not a sure shot at cleaning the barrel but it's he best you can do. And afterwards you'll be able to fill it with a beer and get that bourbon barrel aged flavor.

Excellent. I have a large bottle of random vodka.

1) How long to let the vodka sit in there?
2) Can I drink that s**t after draining the barrel?! Figure if it's only in there a couple days it won't really pull much wood into it. Just not sure if a couple days would be enough. Couple of hours??

 

[m00ps]

One thing id consider is how strong the first beer you stick into that barrel will be. The brewery near me recently just tapped their Irish Red which was put into a fresh bourbon barrel. It went in at 5.3% and came out +7%. Guess there was a lot of bourbon which leeched out into the beer

 

[ILMSTMF]

One thing id consider is how strong the first beer you stick into that barrel will be. The brewery near me recently just tapped their Irish Red which was put into a fresh bourbon barrel. It went in at 5.3% and came out +7%. Guess there was a lot of bourbon which leeched out into the beer

The imperial stout started at around 8%. I never thought to check gravity again once out of the barrel. I will say that it came out so F***ING good.

 

[microbusbrewery]

If it's only 1/2 gallon, just fill it and drain it a few times with 200F water (non-chlorinated). It won't be sterile, but it'll be sanitary. Keep in mind every time you fill it, you're moving closer and closer to a neutral barrel. You can re-season with spirits (e.g. bourbon) to increase the spirit character, but you'll get less oak character with each fill.

 

[ILMSTMF]

If it's only 1/2 gallon, just fill it and drain it a few times with 200F water (non-chlorinated). It won't be sterile, but it'll be sanitary. Keep in mind every time you fill it, you're moving closer and closer to a neutral barrel. You can re-season with spirits (e.g. bourbon) to increase the spirit character, but you'll get less oak character with each fill.

This is probably what I'll be doing. I don't mind the barrel moving back to neutral. Kind of want to get that imperial stout off of the wood and re-coat with the bourbon last produced in this barrel. Did quite a number on the I.S., would think it'd treat the barleywine nicely too.

 

[freisste]

Have a half gallon micro oak barrel that has been used for several batches of bourbon ...

Strictly speaking, it had one batch of bourbon and several batches of whisky (as to be bourbon, the distillate must be aged in a NEW oak barrel). But I digress.

As far as sanitizing, I would go with a quick hit of boiling water. Fill your brew kettle with a couple gallons and get it to a boil. Pour to fill it and let it sit a minute. Dump and refill with a second batch of boiling water, letting it soak a little longer (each refill will hear the wood and allow a longer soak at 160+ deg). Repeat until you're out of water. Don't forget the stopper, etc. I would then store with some kind of booze - for me, probably bourbon.

 

[slym2none]

Excellent. I have a large bottle of random vodka.

1) How long to let the vodka sit in there?
2) Can I drink that s**t after draining the barrel?! Figure if it's only in there a couple days it won't really pull much wood into it. Just not sure if a couple days would be enough. Couple of hours??

1) as long as you want
2) yep - now they even sell vodka that has been barrelled

 

[ILMSTMF]

As far as sanitizing, I would go with a quick hit of boiling water. Fill your brew kettle with a couple gallons and get it to a boil. Pour to fill it and let it sit a minute. Dump and refill with a second batch of boiling water, letting it soak a little longer (each refill will hear the wood and allow a longer soak at 160+ deg). Repeat until you're out of water. Don't forget the stopper, etc. I would then store with some kind of booze - for me, probably bourbon.

Followed these instructions; did 5 fills of water into the barrel. Then did a cold rinse. Then filled it with as much bourbon as I could (probably 90% full). Shook the hell out of it then shook again after 24 hours. Captured the bourbon, filled with the barleywine.
The worst part of this, like last time, was trying to stop the auto siphon once the barrel started overflowing while minimizing a mess. Yes, sat the barrel on the dishwasher door. Yes, that helped significantly.

Thanks to all!

 

[BrunDog]

One Half gallon? Is that even worth the effort?

 

[ILMSTMF]

Hell yeah it's worth the effort! This way, if it made the beer WORSE off than the straight batch, well, at least the whole batch didn't get hosed. Looking at it more positively, it's a great way to experiment with brews. "Hmmm. Wonder what this would be like if aged on oak..."

 

[BrunDog]

Keep in mind you have a very high surface area:volume with a small barrel. That means a much shorter exposure time unless you would get too much wood character.

 

[ILMSTMF]

Thanks BrunDog. I made that "mistake" first time around. 9 weeks! And the result is damn good, to my palate.
Bear in mind, I cut the barrel in equal proportion with the straight batch of same beer. Hence, got about 9 bottles out of the deal.