Barrel-Aging Roll Call

why not add a handle of cheap vodka? has the same preservative effect, won't add bourbon flavor. Maybe it wills trip the bourbon/oak flavor though? I think it depends what you want to do with your barrel. more bourbon flavor add bourbon. Move to sour beers quickly, maybe try vodka or water. you don't need to fill the barrel. Just swish the liquid around.

I just put in a handle. I make sure to give it a 1/4 turn every day, and also stand it up on each head too. The key is to try to schedule your brewery so that on the day you empty beer A, beer B goes in, when beer B is emptied, C goes in, etc. Eventually you will strip all the bourbon and oak flavors, but then you can turn it into a sour barrel...that's my plan at least. Good luck!

Irrenarzt said:

Fill it with hot water and that will keep it fresh and ready to go when you need it.

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DO NOT FILL IT WITH HOT WATER!! hot water has alot of crap in it, bacteria and whatnot. your hot water heater is not by any means sanitary. it's ok to rinse with hot water, but not to store in the barrel. always fill it with cold water and use campden or some metabisulfate to keep the wild bugs out best you can. recently i've been using jim bean just to keep the whisky flavor present whenever it's empty and not being used for a few days.

I've had my 5 gal for a few months and aged a barleywine in it for a little more than 3 weeks. Then i put a scotch ale in it for about 6 weeks. now i have an RIS in it and that will stay in for about 2 months. i still have to plan my next beer to go into the barrel when the RIS is done. I have another barrel that's only 3 gal which is a sour barrel and has been stripped of its oakiness after a year of use which aged a good half dozen different beers.

my barrel has been really helping to drop the gravity of these BIG beers. the barleywine went in at about 1.025 and came out at about 1.010. I don't know why this is happeneing, but happened to the scotch ale and now the RIS is also fermenting. it's good in the sense i'll get the most bang outta these beers as possible along with the whisky kickin it up a notch. yay oak barrels!!

I_B_Mongo said:

I just put in a handle. ..., but then you can turn it into a sour barrel...that's my plan at least. Good luck!

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I have 2 questions if you'll indulge me:

WTH is a "handle"?

How does one go about "turning it into a sour barrel"? I've been poking around the "wild and Lambic" forum, but there's no real "start here" that obvious. I'm also reading "wild brews", but haven't progressed much.

Thanks

3 Dog Brew said:

I have 2 questions if you'll indulge me:

WTH is a "handle"?

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1.75L of liquor... surprised you never heard this term. Think about big bottles of liquor. They come with handles for dispensing. Hence the name.

How does one go about "turning it into a sour barrel"? I've been poking around the "wild and Lambic" forum, but there's no real "start here" that obvious. I'm also reading "wild brews", but haven't progressed much.

Thanks

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Poke around a bit more and also check out http://www.themadfermentationist.com/. His site is cool and he also posts on the boards here.

The barrel, once stripped of its bourbon and oak flavor, can be a great fermentation or secondary vessel for sour beers because bugs will hang out in the wood. You can pitch sour blends from WL or Wyeast, and also add dregs of sour beers for fermentation to get some funky stuff. You strip the barrel of flavor by using it a lot (i.e. bringing many beers in contact over a prolonged period).

I should really post my pics of the rumble barrel I have filled now.......

Another note on the sour factor. I didn't keep beers in my barrel all the time. I've been putting one every 6 months or so in there. Anywho, it was sour on my second batch. I racked to secondary and let the beer clear and then moved it to the barrel. I left it in the barrel for about two weeks and bottled. When I tasted it at bottling time it was spot on, no sourness. After conditioning for about a week and a half it had an awesome sour flavor. I wasn't trying to get my beer to be sour, I just wanted a good oak stout. What I got was a sour stout which i've never heard of before but it's pretty good. Anywho from here on out it'll be flanders reds and such. The moral of the story is if you want a sour barrel, just wait.

3 Dog Brew said:

How does one go about "turning it into a sour barrel"? I've been poking around the "wild and Lambic" forum, but there's no real "start here" that obvious. I'm also reading "wild brews", but haven't progressed much.

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it's not so much a good thing, but an eventual reality. as noted above, my SG kept dropping to very low readings in my 5gal barrel; every batch eventually went sour after conditioning. point is that barrel was soured from day 1 for no real good reason so you won't have to try to hard if you're looking to sour a barrel. in the wine world if your barrel goes sour it's garbage for their purposes and that's when they'll sell 'em for $50. if you want to expedite the souring or harbor particular bugs either A. pitch a bought WL/WY culture, B. pour in bottle dregs or C. find Al_B. brettanomyces is everywhere and eventually, especially in a material like wood, they're going to overtake it. you can't bleach or star-san wood...

jessup said:

... brettanomyces is everywhere and eventually, especially in a material like wood, they're going to overtake it. you can't bleach or star-san wood...

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So do sulfur strips help at all if I want to keep a barrel from souring too soon?

BTW: thanks for the responses, I get what you are saying.

i have 15gallons of lambic aging at the moment.
Next up will be 15 of sour brown.

3 Dog Brew said:

So do sulfur strips help at all if I want to keep a barrel from souring too soon?

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since that's what vintners/wine makers do and they are 100% against brett, i would have to say yes. definitely. can anyone else confirm? while i have 1.5 yrs experience with barrels i'm def no expert on the subject.

55 gal of 13% Barleywine aging in a 2000 Evan Williams single barrel. How long is everyone leaving their beer in the barrel?

We're on our fourth year long barrel project right now. 60gal Cabernet barrel.
2007 Flanders Red
2008 Cherry Lambic
2009 Flanders Brown
2010 Framboise which will be aging at least until February 2012.

Vaughn said:

55 gal of 13% Barleywine aging in a 2000 Evan Williams single barrel. How long is everyone leaving their beer in the barrel?

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it should be proportionate to barrel size and surface area. and your tolerance/taste for oakiness... how long has the barleywine been in there?

I just came into a 50 gallon barrel quite unexpectedly. So now I am trying to come up with an idea of what to do with it.