I'm thiking about buying a brand new oak barrel that one of my supplier sells, and I'm wondering about the life this barrel could have (in other words... will it worth the money).
Here's what I'm thinking, tell me if I can't do more or less or differently with it:
1-Age a big beer (Belgian Quad or English Barleywine) in the raw barrel for 6-12 months, then blend it with the same un-aged recipe (because the flavor will be insanely prominent, and that way I will get 10 or 15 gallons of wood-aged beer with a 6 gallons barrel!)
2-Rinse/clean/sanitize it
3-The oak flavor should have gone, so soak it with a nice bourbon for about a week, then age a big imperial Stout or Porter in it for few months (blended or not)
4-Then the oak flavors must have gone completly, so...
5-Put a fermented beer in it with Brett, lacto and peddio, and by then, begin to use it as a continuous lambic barrel. Use half of it to blend with other lambic, refill it, etc, etc... So the barrel is never empty, and always full of nasties!
Here's what I'm thinking, tell me if I can't do more or less or differently with it:
1-Age a big beer (Belgian Quad or English Barleywine) in the raw barrel for 6-12 months, then blend it with the same un-aged recipe (because the flavor will be insanely prominent, and that way I will get 10 or 15 gallons of wood-aged beer with a 6 gallons barrel!)
2-Rinse/clean/sanitize it
3-The oak flavor should have gone, so soak it with a nice bourbon for about a week, then age a big imperial Stout or Porter in it for few months (blended or not)
4-Then the oak flavors must have gone completly, so...
5-Put a fermented beer in it with Brett, lacto and peddio, and by then, begin to use it as a continuous lambic barrel. Use half of it to blend with other lambic, refill it, etc, etc... So the barrel is never empty, and always full of nasties!