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Any way to tell/guess how much abv boost you will get from barrel aging? I’m planning on doing ~15 gallons of bourbon stout (in a fresh 15 gallon barrel) with a friend. I’d imagine 10, if not all 15 gallons will be bottle conditioned. I keg, he doesn’t. Plan on giving a lot of it away too...

I have 5 gallons of each - a 1,2,3,& 4 year old extract lambic. I was thinking about having a few (1-4) people over to get some different perspectives on blends. What’s the best, or easiest way to go about this? Measure by weight, with a scale? How much to take out of each carboy for the...

I want to add some fruit juice & maybe lactose to a sour beer that I will be kegging. It is from a solera type barrel that is at least a year old (since last addition). I probably won't drink it fast enough to rely solely on refrigeration to keep fermentation at bay. I've read that people...

I was planning to just use it & see what happens, but then you mentioned "expensive". I like the experimentation and unknown of wild/mixed fermentations, but with $40-$50 worth of hops alone, it would be an expensive one to have to dump. Thanks for the reply. wickerman

I'll start off by saying, I generally only brew wild/mixed fermentations, so it isn't a big concern. I made a starter for an neipa (wlp007 dry English ale) probably about a month ago, then couldn't brew. I've been busy every weekend lately, and just kind of forgot about it. Now, the starter...

I'm looking to make a "juicy" session type of beer using 5lbs extra light, and 1lb wheat dme in a 5 gallon batch. Probably do a 15min boil using 6 gallons of distilled water (~6.5 gallon boil total volume). I'll be using 1oz Columbus at 15min, 1oz Amarillo at flame out, a bunch of stuff in...

Thanks for the replies. There's a lot of conflicting info about the hops. I've read somewhere that young lambic is actually somewhat bitter. Some say the hops should be cheesy, others say beyond cheesy, where they smell like nothing. Also have read that if they are cheesy, it will boil off...

My plan is to make an extract lambic, doing a 60min boil with aged hops. I have a wild starter that I'm going to use, along with dregs and maybe a lambic blend to be safe. I have some old home grown hops in my freezer I'd like to quick "age" in the oven. I know that aged hops aren't...

Thanks for the reply. I should have stated I have the Swanson plantarum capsules.

Will lacto sour at 60-65, or is that too cold? I understand warmer is better, but is it necessary, or just faster? I've heard it takes longer at room temp, but what is room temp, 70, 75? Thanks, wickerman

When filling a barrel with beer, how full do you make it? Should it be full until over flowing? Seems like that would make an airlock fairly useless. I have a 30 gallon barrel that I'll be filling up with sour beer within the next month or so. I already have the beer fermenting, so this will...

Thanks for the reply. I was thinking that by pitching different stuff in each, it would allow different yeast and bacteria to grow in each resulting in more complexity when mixed together. I like the idea of making an extra batch or two in case one is off, or happens to be great, but I don't...

I plan on starting a few 15 gallon soleras in the near future, but am not quite sure how I should go about using dregs. I'll be using either 15 gallon demi-johns or whiskey barrels for the secondaries, and 3 buckets for primary. Now my question is, if I primary in 3 different buckets (5...

Thanks, I appreciate your replies. My goal is to try and get the barrel as neutral as possible by rinsing a few times with various things, and "steam" it with some boiling water. It is obvious to me that this may or may not work. I figure that any whiskey flavor that remains would likely be...

Thanks for the info! Did the first pull have much of a bourbon taste to it, and how long before you took your first pull? I may play around with a 15 gallon barrel first (should be easier to get, I'm on a waiting list for a 30) to see if I can "wash" out some of the flavor. I know that 15 &...

Still looking for info, mainly on what a "good" price is on various sizes of used barrels, and if it's possible to remove the whiskey/flavor from a whiskey barrel without running beer through it. As far as the whiskey removal goes, I have 2 methods that may work that I've read about. 1)...

Thanks for your replies. I know 30 gallon barrels are bit more rare, but I find it hard to believe I can make 50-60 gallons in a reasonable amount of time without making big beers and diluting them w/ water. I have a 15 gallon demi-john, 2 "sour" buckets and carboys I can primary in. My...

I'm thinking about starting a solera type sour saison barrel. Ideally I would like to find a freshly emptied barrel from a local winery in the 30 gallon range, but haven't started looking yet. Id like to do a small (~4%) sour & funky farmhouse/saison type beer that I could pull 10-15 gallons...

I have vials of wlp645 brett C, wlp677 lacto, and wlp665 Flemish ale blend that I'd like to do meads with, but space and carboys are limited. I currently have a batch with wlp665 Belgian sour mix going, as well as a 1 gallon made with gueuze dregs. I only used clover honey in those 2 though.

Thanks for the replies. My thought was that if brett and bacteria can eat esters from other yeast, they could devour what contributes to honey taste/aroma as well. It had occurred to me that sour mead may not work to well because I can't find much about sour mead experimenting. I would think...