Bourbon Barrel questions

I recently got hold of a used and reconditioned 60gal Woodford Reserve barrel. I put some water in there and there are lots of burnt chips floating around, but doesnt look like any mold.
Are there any procedures I need to follow to properly prepare the barrel to be used for beer aging? I am especially concerned about contaminates - should I sterilize the barrel somehow? I also don't want to lose too much of the delicious bourbon taste, so want to keep rinsing/cleaning to a minimum.
Also - any advice on what should be the first batch? I was thinking a Russian Imperial Stout - something big and bold that could handle the added flavor.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Cheers,
Nick

 

When we got our bourbon barrel we had to do a sulfur treatment. It's like an incense. After the sulfur we did a light warm water rinse.

The burnt chips are normal. Same thing happened with ours.

 

Thats a damn good question! you never know whats been growing in there. Glad i went with oak cubes sanitized in Bourbon. Hey could it be that easy? Just put a bottle of bourbon in there and turn it once in while, no bad odor or tastes.

 

How long did it sit empty? The longer it was empty, the bigger chance that some nasties got in there.

I got one that we used for a club brew. It sat in my garage for longer than I'd planned while we decided on a recipe, brewed, did our primaries, oh and while I built a rack for it. So rehydration and sanitation were my main concerns by the time we were ready to fill it. I followed the French method for rehydration as outlined in Midwest's guide (http://www.midwestsupplies.com/media/downloads/422/barrel_care_sheet.pdf). I ended up topping the barrel off with near boiling water after that to help ensure there wasn't any acetobacter or other un intended organisms in there. I'm sure that diluted some of the barrel character, but I figured it was better than ending up with 55 gallons of malt vinegar. You can add a bottle of bourbon to re-season the barrel but I don't know if I'd trust that to sanitize if the barrel has been sitting dry for an extended period.

 

In my opinion, oak chips and cubes are great and all and I use them but there is nothing that could compare to a recently used barrel that held bourbon or something similar.

 

Thanks for the responses - I really appreciate the link, MBB, some great info there.
Need to get brewing!