Barrel aged stout

[ForTheLoveOf]

Hi all,
Looking at doing a barrel aged imperial stout in an ex peated whisky barrel. Preference is in the line of 'Matt's imperial stout ' from grain and grape or 'dead men tell no lies' from Modus brewery. Have never created my own recipes as yet, need some advice before I fill a 100ltr barrel... any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks guys

 

[Snuffy]

Not to oversimplify, but you need to decide on a recipe, hunt it down online, and then scale it up with brewing software to the volume you want, collect your ingredients, brew it, and then place the finished beer in your barrel and wait. Taste it occasionally and then keg or bottle once it has reached the level of barrel flavor you like.
Disclaimer: I have never barrel aged a beer, but this is how I imagine I would do it.
Note: 3 posts in the last 15 years, huh? That's some world-class lurking, right there.

 

[sibelman]

100ltr barrel

Given the omg large batch size, you might consider doing a small batch first to make sure you're heading in the right direction before launching the big batch. You could add some wood chips to the small fermenter to approximate the barrel flavor. Best of luck with this project.

 

[An Ankoù]

That was my thinking, too. Have you already got the barrel?
Peated stout isn't too everybody's taste, certainly not too mine.

 

[sibelman]

Peated stout

I haven't detected peat in any of the barrel aged stouts I've tried. Dunno what that would be like. Might be a worthy (large!) experiment.

 

[hungupdown]

For a noticable effect, youre looking to store on oak, for a year or more.

Barrels are hard work.
Gaps open if left empty too long, and barrels are often re-charred before re-use.
Barrel are also very permeable to gasses, ethanol escapes (the 'angels share'), while oxygen comes in. In a warehouse of barrels, the losses are reduced, though the outsides of (Scottish) warehouse walls, are often black from a mould that thrives on ethanol.

On a small scale, its probably easier to use chopped oak barrel staves, in a keg; plastic barrel; or bottles.
For bottles, I saw the staves down to 1/2 inch strips.

Because the staves I get, have been dry for a while. I soak them, in a budget single malt whisky for a couple of weeks, before use.

Other thing is the %ABV.
Long term storage, needed to get the oak effect, works best with higher ABV.
I do 16% 'Award imperial stout'. Search the recipe, a good starter is essential.

I'm not sure if this is still the case. But Scottish distillers used to use a lot of ex US Bourbon casks. With them being cheaper than new casks, from only being allowed to be used once¿, for bourbon.

 

[sibelman]

The factors @hungupdown mentions, and others, have discouraged me from seriously considering buying any barrel. If OP is already barrel savvy, then the 100l project might make sense. Staves!

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

I would shy away from using an actual barrel unless you are absolutely sure where it came from and how it was handled.

Dumping a five gallon batch is painful. Multiple that and it's even worse.

Lots of other options for barrel aged beers out there. Start small and learn first.

 

[hottpeper13]

I'll be kegging my Black Friday RIS when it rains next(gotta yarden when the sun's out). Been in the barrel since Feb. It will get 5 oz of maple syrup (from my trees) to carb up and will be on tap for Thanksgiving.
A Dupple Strong is waiting on the barrel. I have a 5 gal Few barrel with multiple runs, and has always been wet, if it sits more then a month empty it gets rewetted with turkey 101. The following are things you should think about.
1- enough yeast- I make a small beer like a bitter or mild with Notty and rack the RIS on top of the cake.
2- 1.120- 1.134 OG with a 1.016- 1.020 FG are my targets.
3- I do a 120 min mash at 150*
4- 70 IBU's all at 60 min.
5- With a 25 gal barrel you might want to look into a Vinny Nail for sampling, but I'm thinking 8 months to a year.
My 25 gal barrel developed a head leak after the 4th run. !st- spirit for 3 years, 2nd RIS for a year, 3rd- spirit for 1.5 years, 4th- RIS 8 months.
A friend of mine suggested doing the oak stave conditioning in a plastic bucket to get the micro oxygenation needed to mimic a barrel. Looks like you got options.