Aging in a New Oak Barrel

[petep1980]

I am getting a new oak barrel later this week. I have seen a gazillion posts about aging in used liquor or wine barrels, but I haven't come across much in regards to new oak barrels. I am sure in various areas these questions have been asked and answered, but I haven't been able to find them. I am also a lifetime supporter, so before anyone tells me to do a search, please consider that.

I am hoping people with experience can comment on these and speak from their experience, rather than say "the beer is ready when the beer is ready".

In your experience, did you find there to be a lot of oak flavor from a relatively short aging period. I picture the flavor from the first aging to be more intense than later agings. Has anyone found this to be true at all?

I have a KBS clone which has been sitting in secondary with 7g soaked wood chips since June 19th. As of this post it has been 50-days. I am tempted to age it towards the end in the new barrel, but I wonder if an additional 2 months would be over-doing it. Would it be useless?

For whatever reason I just think that the first one would really take a lot of the flavor out, and the rest would require much longer aging periods.

Anyone with advice, please comment.

 

[CJ-3]

Before doing anything with a new barrel, make sure to fill it with hot water and let it sit overnight to check for leaks and let the wood swell.

Repeat as needed every night until it doesn't leak anymore.

Then you may want to season before the first use with the spirit of your choosing, to help with the 'Barrel Aged' flavor.

You are correct with thinking a new barrel will impart more flavor (or impart flavor more quickly) than an older one, each batch will impart a bit less.

Personally, I would be wary of moving your KBS clone to a barrel after aging it with chips as it would be easy to 'over oak' it, you may want to wait for a new brew to break the barrel in with but the choice is ultimately up to you.

 

[petep1980]

Thanks for the advice. I am going to go ahead and not put the KBS clone in it. I will just fill it with water and spirit it up until I am ready to add something. Then I will have to just check the level of oakiness as I go along.

Thanks for the help.

 

[brewpool]

I currently have my new barrel soaking with water and am curious what to expect. I was not planning to "season" it with Bourbon as I just wanted some oak flavor in my upcoming barleywine. Is "seasoning" it highly recommended or just preference? What ratio of Bourbon to barrel size is recommended?

 

[Gentlemans_Ale]

You don't have to fill it with water if it's a new barrel. If you don't want to strip the beautiful bourbon oak flavor - don't touch the inside until you add a beer into it (sooner rather than later). You can swell the wood by simply storing on its head and keeping the top soaked, then alternate sides every few days. There's a lot of good barrel care resources online.

 

[brewpool]

You don't have to fill it with water if it's a new barrel. If you don't want to strip the beautiful bourbon oak flavor - don't touch the inside until you add a beer into it (sooner rather than later). You can swell the wood by simply storing on its head and keeping the top soaked, then alternate sides every few days. There's a lot of good barrel care resources online.

Thanks. The instructions that came with it recommended swelling it with water for a week but you've talked sense into me and I just drained the water. It was only in there for one day at least. It smelled great. I'll be adding the barleywine to it this weekend.

I plan to taste it periodically but how long do you expect it will take before I'll want to bottle? I've heard it can be as quick as a couple weeks. I know it will be dependant on how strong a flavor I want but I'm looking for a ballpark.

 

[Hoppity]

You don't have to fill it with water if it's a new barrel. If you don't want to strip the beautiful bourbon oak flavor - don't touch the inside until you add a beer into it (sooner rather than later). You can swell the wood by simply storing on its head and keeping the top soaked, then alternate sides every few days. There's a lot of good barrel care resources online.

OP said it was a new barrel. It took me several iterations of water filling to swell my barrel when it was new.

 

[petep1980]

FWIW I filled it with water on Saturday, and by Sunday afternoon it was no longer seeping. I will obviously be leaving the water in now, and topping it off as it evaporates (which is more than I expected).

I don't see any reasonable way to "season it" with a spirit. Used barrels were full of a spirit for months or even years. I cannot afford to fill this with 5 gallons of liquor for the sake of seasoning it, so I am just going to have to add whatever I want when I do age it.

Anyways, I have decided on a porter with amaretto and rum for my first batch, and I figure aging it for about a month would be appropriate.

 

[petep1980]

OP said it was a new barrel. It took me several iterations of water filling to swell my barrel when it was new.

Correct. Now that I have it swollen, I am not tinkering with it.

 

[Gentlemans_Ale]

OP said it was a new barrel. It took me several iterations of water filling to swell my barrel when it was new.

Well there you have it. My new freshly dumped Balcones bourbon barrel wasn't filled with water to swell and my beer didn't leak when introduced into the barrel...who knows what's right these days?

 

[Hoppity]

Well there you have it. My new freshly dumped Balcones bourbon barrel wasn't filled with water to swell and my beer didn't leak when introduced into the barrel...who knows what's right these days?

It depends on what the definition of new is.

The staves of a barrel that never contained liquid will leak before they swell. Your barrel once contained Bourbon, making it a used barrel. My barrel, & the OP's, were new from the Cooper, having never been swollen by liquid.

 

[Gentlemans_Ale]

It depends on what the definition of new is.

The staves of a barrel that never contained liquid will leak before they swell. Your barrel once contained Bourbon, making it a used barrel. My barrel, & the OP's, were new from the Cooper, having never been swollen by liquid.

Ahhhh...now that makes sense. You guys are big leaguers. I will gracefully bow out on this one.

 

[Hoppity]

@Gentlemans Ale
I wish mine had stored Bourbon previously. I'm getting ready to treat it with some before I load up the next batch of Breakfast Stout. I doubt it will make much of a difference due to short exposure, but at least it should kill off anything that grew in there since its last use. I filled it up with distilled water after the last batch.

 

[Gentlemans_Ale]

@Gentlemans Ale
I wish mine had stored Bourbon previously. I'm getting ready to treat it with some before I load up the next batch of Breakfast Stout. I doubt it will make much of a difference due to short exposure, but at least it should kill off anything that grew in there since its last use. I filled it up with distilled water after the last batch.

That's funny because I kinda wish I had a new one...I'm on this sour kick and wish I had a clean slate to populate with some bugs.