Port barrel Barley Wine

I'm currently brain storming a new batch with some friends. We want to do a big, complex barley wine for 2016 christmas time.

I have some questions.

Provided I can get my hands on a port barrel, will the fact that the volume of the barrel is 59 gallons and the volume of my batch may end up being right at 5 gallons have any adverse effect on the aging process?

What if i did two batches on the same recipe? I could brew two in the same day, ferment 2, then blend them in the barrel once fermentation is done. Would that have any negative effects?

Lastly,

The way i understand it (and please set me straight if needed), is that Barrel aging is just that. After fermentation the unconditioned beer goes directly into the sealed barrel for however long until it's "ready", then gets bottled or kegged. (thought i'll be doing Belgian bottle conditioning). Will there be enough yeast left to carbonate in bottle?

Thanks, any advice or insight would be so greatly appreciated.

Have a great day.

 

Putting 5G of beer into 59G of barrel will cause the barrel to dry out and leak. It's recommended to keep those things full. Plus the headspace would be huge leading to oxidation.

At that rate you could get a port barrel stave, chop it up, and toss it into a 5G carboy; soak oak cubes in port and add; or add 1 cup or more of port directly. There's a "Port-like Beer" recipe in Randy Mosher's Radical Brewing - if you can get the ABV to 14% then sherry flor at warm temperatures will give you some of the port characteristics in a controlled oxidation of the beer without the need for port.

 

that's exactly what i was afraid of. I had a feeling that was the case. i've been looking for 5 gallon barrels to use, but they'd all be new and not have that port flavor. I think i'll give a call to a guy i know that makes some of the best port i've ever had, and see if he's got some staves i can use.

Thank you.

 

I've used 2oz of oak cubes soaked in Cab Sav and vermouth a couple times and didn't really get much wine flavor from that. Maybe a stave or oak spiral could hold more flavor.

Mad Fermentationist has added a whole bottle of wine to a saison.

 

Interesting. Flor is basically the sherry yeast right? When to add that? Durring the yeast pitch?

 

The concept here was a barley wine first, but aged in port barrel. I'm not necessarily going for "Port-Beer". Does that makes sense? i guess i could do the barley wine first, then secondary on port staves like dry hopping, then bottle and age that way.

 

Makes sense. The other thing to consider would be if there's any sort of port flor in the barrel pieces. With a high FG barley wine there would be a lot of food for bugs.

 

Those 5 gal barrels are not great for very long term aging.....days to weeks. They let in a ton of oxygen. Plus like you say, they might be fresh. You can occasionally find used 5 and 10 gal whiskey barrels for sale on homebrew webshops or distillers. And you say you know a guy who makes great port.....maybe buy a 10 gal, run a beer through it to pull the bourbon flavor mostly out, and see if the dude will set you up with port to fill the barrel? Let that age a month or 3, bottle, then put your beer in.

However, as mentioned, your best bet would be cubes or spirals, soaked in port for several weeks, and put the chips in the beer

 

Sounds like there's lots of options. Just got to see what i can come up with logistically. Thanks guys it's really appreciated.

 

i think i'm going to do these, and soak a couple for a day or two in port in a carboy. http://www.blackswanbarrels.com/shop/

Then i'll put them in with the beer in a secondary carboy. Like a Dry hopping stage.

Any objections? LOL