Opinions on how to use my 3 gallon barrel

[helibrewer]

My wife got me a 3 gallon whiskey barrel and I'm trying to figure out how best to use it. My thoughts are to use it as a bug farm, keeping it going solera style by taking a gallon to innoculate a brew and adding a gallon of fresh wort back to it. I know it is very small so my other option would be to use the entire 3 gallons as a blender but I haven't figured out the ratios I would use for this.

Appreciate any thoughts.

 

[floatyfish]

I would love to know the answer to this. I was thinking about getting a barrel and using it as a bug incubator myself.

 

[monkeeroot]

Here's a nice link that might help you figure out how to utilize it as a Solera brew barrel. It looks like he was pulling about half out of the barrel and then replenishing it with fresh.

http://byo.com/videos/item/2957-solera-homebrew-last-call

Also a link to his blog:

https://apuhihi.wordpress.com/solera-brewing-project-barrel-aged-beer/

If you decide to do this, let us know how it turns out. Happy brewing.

 

[chefchris]

You're probably going to want to wax most (if not all) of the outside of the barrel with paraffin wax and if nothing is in it right now make a holding solution with citric acid and potassium metabisulfite.

 

[ArcaneXor]

A barrel that small works best as an inoculation tank. I would still wax it to keep acetobacter under control.

 

[Wahoo]

It depends on the type of barrel you have-- especially the previous contents, and the thickness/permeability of the wood.

I've had some good success using the following program to make a Flanders Red style beer, which I think is the most forgiving for a small barrel. First, a wood character isn't out of place in the style, and secondly, a *bit* of acetic acid is common.

1. Brew 5+ gallons of wort. Ferment with Roselare Blend in a primary.
2. After primary, put 3 gallons into your small barrel, and the remainder into glass (1 gallon jugs work great for this program. 3 gallon carboys are also useful)
3. While that beer is aging, brew another batch of 5 gallons. Either use Roselare, just Brett, or a clean ale yeast, it's your choice (there are pros and cons to each)
4. When you're ready to blend, you have 3 worts to select from. The barrel, the older non-barreled, and the newer, non-barreled. Determine your blend to taste and package the beer. Note: if you use only a clean ale yeast for step 3, or a brett-only beer that hasn't fermented out to the same FG as your Roselare blend, you could end up with bottle bombs. Either factor this in for your priming sugar, or put the whole blend into a carboy until the FG of the blend is stable. I haven't had too many problems doing this, but in theory, it could get very ugly.
5. The leftover non-barreled beer goes into the barrel, which you should have rinsed. If you have leftover barreled beer, put it in growlers/jugs.
6. Go back to step 3.

This ends up with a perpetual program of making sours without having to do a solera. I think of a solera as being more appropriate for larger barrels for a few reasons-- first, most homebrewers brew in multiples of 5 gallons. So if you are trying to do a 3 gallon solera, what will you do, brew 2 gallons? Secondly, with the small barrel, you have a lot more oxygen ingress, and for that reason, I believe that you want LESS contact time with the wood than with a large barrel. Whereas a solera maximizes contact time with the wood, at least for the oldest beer in the barrel. I would imagine after 1-2 years, the beer in a 3 gallon solera would be super acetic.

 

[TheZymurgist]

If it were me, I'd be doing what Wahoo said.

 

[Wahoo]

Edited the post above for formatting

 

[helibrewer]

Thanks Wahoo, great info. It's a charred whiskey barrel that I am rehydrating. I tasted the hydrating water in the barrel after about 30 min and there is a faint whiskey character which is fine with me. I planned on wax sealing the entire barrel, maybe leave one head unwaxed to minimize aceto.

Since this is a whiskey barrel I will probably go with a dark sour, maybe based on a duppel recipe.

I have a 30L Speidel so I think the first batch (10 gal) will split 3 gal in barrel, 7 gallons in Speidel and we will see what happens.

Again, thanks everyone, sours are brand new for me.

 

[Koffie]

Why would you wax the outside ?

 

[TheZymurgist]

Why would you wax the outside ?

Because the oak is permeable to oxygen, and with such a small barrel, it would let in far too much. Larger barrels have a much higher beer-to-surface-area ratio, which means it's letting in far less oxygen per the amount of beer. Wax would seal the barrel, allowing you to stop or control the exchange of oxygen.

 

[Koffie]

But you want to get some of the air into the barrel and wort, to let the beasties grow. So I assume you should leave some part of the barrel un-waxed, right ?

 

[TheZymurgist]

But you want to get some of the air into the barrel and wort, to let the beasties grow. So I assume you should leave some part of the barrel un-waxed, right ?

Not necessarily, especially if you're aging for a long time. The "beasties" don't need oxygen, and over time can create acetic acid (vinegar). Aeration prior to fermentation helps the yeast and bacteria grow, but it's not something you want over a long period of time.