That new (to me) barrel feeling...

[goodolarchie]

This was a 55L recently dumped Pinot Barrel that has about 3 beers left in its life. Finding ideal homebrew sizes in the 55L-80L-110L can be tricky but I have made friends with some local winemakers, they do smaller projects in barrels like these. This is my 7th barrel, I've had both used and new so I've developed a process for barrels I don't want to completely fill with water (i.e. not fresh oak):

Since this was sulfured, I gave it a small hot water addition (205F) with a quick swirl and let it steam for an hour. I've also learned that even "freshly dumped" wine barrels dry out FAST when empty, and unless they can give you a dump from the past couple days, you should plan on having to swell or deal with leaks - which are almost always at the heads. Same would be true for spirit barrels.

My standard technique is to swell the heads by standing the barrel on one end, pooling hot water (180f) on the OUTSIDE of the other head. Any pinholes or leaky spiles/staves will penetrate and swell, but you'll get very little liquid inside the barrel. After a couple hours, you can add a bit more liquid, check the level (or just top it up), keep topping off until you see no level drop, which could take a couple days. Then repeat for the other head. Lastly, I always use a 1/8 drill bit to seat a Vinnie Nail. (If you do this for a filled barrel you probably have to use 9/64 bit.)

If you do really have strong leaks at the head, and the liquid is pooling at the bottom in a matter of minutes, don't panic because this is common under so much hydrostatic pressure. Bees/Parrafin wax is my usual go to, I apply and then hit it with a blowtorch quickly, and it really does a good job protecting against too much oxygen ingress. Small dowels and toothpicks with a small mallet can be great makeshift spiles. I've heard garlic can be rubbed, but that doesn't help with the little nooks, and I don't think I want garlic near my beer.

Cheers, here comes another Pinot Noir Barrel aged Biere de Garde!

 

[pigroaster]

Any chance of you posting your beer recipe or directing me to a recipe that inspired you? Thanks. Igloo time here in Canada. The dog sled mail delivery system was tested last week so all should be fine. Not sure how they keep the dogs 6 feet apart and masked!

 

[goodolarchie]

Sure! The recipe is one of the more complex for a "farmhouse" beer, but I find the bigger beer and darker malts really compliment the brett strain.

I can't really scale this down to 5 gallons so I'll keep it to percentages.

(Funky) Amber Biere de Garde
OG: 1.064
IBU: 20
7 SRM
~6.5% abv

62% Mecca Grade Pelton
8% Shaniko (White) Wheat
8% Bestmalz Spelt Malt (or sub wheat)
8% Vanora (Vienna)
5% Aromatic (Dingemans)
5% Caravienne malt
4% Flaked Oats

Note: If you want a higher OG, I'd recommend adding sugar either in the boil or on day 2 of fermentation. 1.070 makes a great BdG if you don't pitch brett.

I recommend mashing at about 155 if you use a highly attenuative yeast, especially if adding sugar. Some of these strains will still bring the beer down to 1.003 handily, it's nice to have a bit of body and residual sugar to balance the

Styrian Golding to 17 IBU @ 60 mins
About 8g or 0.25oz/gal of Strisselspalt or Hallertau at 15 mins. E.g. 1.5oz for a 6 gallon batch. This should add 3-4 IBU.

Yeast nutrient, Whirlfloc at 10 mins.

Chill to 66F. I recommend the Dupont strain, or Wallonian Farmhouse III from TheYeastBay. You can (and probably should) slightly underpitch, but aerate this thing, it's a bigger beer.

Let it drift slowly up to 70 and then ramp towards 76 towards to fully dry out. This will produce a dry, malty, phenolic and lightly fruity autumnal beer. The wheat and oats will help it retain body and head.

If you like a funky and complex beer like I do (hence this sub forum), pitch a nice cherry pie lambicus strain after about 3 days while still in primary. I think Wyeast 5112+Lambicus does a great job of this, as does Gigayeast Sour Cherry (it produces a straight-up cherry warhead if you pitch it straight). You won't get much lactic acid production if any, but the brett and sacch will get it quite tart. In my case, I like the malt depth and slight cara sweetness, brett, and pinot barrel character to all support each other. I wanted a beer that could hold up to the tannic fruit and oak, as well as bring some fruity ester interest.