Spiced holiday ale into bourbon barrel.

[sawbossFogg]

I have a 15 gallon charred American oak bourbon barrel from a small distillery that produced a wonderful BBS that I just bottled and kegged after three weeks with two stout fractions in the barrel. There's a lot of bourbon left in the wood and the barrel is still free of lacto or any unwanted bacteria.

I'm considering filling it off a fermentor from a local brewery that makes an excellent spiced holiday ale. It's a great opportunity. I'm confident I'll get two more clean uses out of this barrel before I sour it, but I'm also fairly confident that once I introduce a thoroughly spiced ale, the spice will be there to stay.

Any experience here?


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[sawbossFogg]

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[Cyclman]

I would try making a spiced tea and add at bottling time...I'd save that barrel, once the bourbon flavors run out, to sour it.

 

[sawbossFogg]

Thanks Cyblman,

Yeah the spiced beer has been in the barrel for about a month. It's very mildly spiced though so I'm not worried about it much. I'm kegging that tomorrow and putting a triple into it.

 

[Cyclman]

I know you can steam clean a barrel, if the spice lingers this might help.

 

[chadkarol]

It depends how much spice is in the ale you're throwing in there. If it's mild you probably won't notice it on your second batch. If it's highly spiced though I wouldn't be surprised you'll notice it afterwards though. I have a couple barrels. I've never tried a spice beer in any, but strong flavors do stick around.

 

[sawbossFogg]

I know you can steam clean a barrel, if the spice lingers this might help.

Thanks guys, yeah I went with it cause it is a really mildly spiced beer, plus its very low alcohol, also was made with the same trappist yeast as the next high gravity batch trippel going into the barrel.

Until the barrel is soured I will rely on a thorough 180F plus hot rinse between batches