Secondary Fermenting in an Oak Barrel

[jefft321]

I just transferred a Porter that I brewed and fermented in my primary for just over 2 weeks into a 2.5 gallon american oak barrel. I added 1 cup of bourbon and I am going to secondary ferment it for 1 month in the barrel. I was wondering if I need to attach an air lock or if I can just seal it with the bung stopper?

 

[eastoak]

that's a long time on a lot of wood for that little bit of beer.

 

[jefft321]

I can ferment for less time, but should I place an air lock?

 

[eastoak]

if the beer is already at FG then it won't be fermenting anymore in the barrel you are just flavoring the beer with oak and bourbon. i couldn't tell you how much time in the barrel would be too much or too little (is it a used barrel, french, american, hungarian?) but i would be tasting it every other day to avoid over oaking the beer. I would use an air lock rather than a solid bung.

 

[fxdude]

+1 on if you've hit your FG then just plug it. Don't forget you're going to want to top off a bit to compensate for the angel's share. Taste the beer often, let it get just slightly over oaked as the oak flavor will mellow out with age.