Barrel aging folks...

[pinkisthedevil]

Hey, I want to get a 5 or 10 gallon whiskey barrel to age some beer in. Once the whiskey smell/flavor goes out of the barrel- what do you do, buy another? Are there any benefits to aging in a neutral barrel?

I'm considering a high abv porter or something dark to make and age now for this winter. Still in the planning phase. Thanks

 

[Franktalk]

After using it twice, there are a couple of things you can do. You can buy some cheap whiskey, put it in the barrel and reinvigorate it with whiskey flavor and aroma. Or, you can use it to add just some oak character, or you can use it to collect bugs and sour a beer.

I'm on my third beer with a five gallon Balcones barrel. The first two got good character from the original whiskey, and before filling it this third time, I added a handle of Jim Beam and sloshed it around for a week or two. The barleywine I filled it with tastes and smells awesome with subtle notes of oak, whiskey and vanilla after six weeks.

The barrels are really expensive--I think I paid around $100 for it--so you have to reuse it to get your money's worth. I hope this helps.

 

[brownni5]

My 15- gallon barrel had one run with a RIS, then it got funky. The RIS was just a means to an end for me.

 

[cactusgarrett]

Franktalk has good advice. I will add there really isn't a "time limit" - the flavor runs out when it runs out. If you continue to use it (and keep it sanitary -> clean, not sour) you'll continue to get oak with no whiskey. But if you want the whiskey, that's the joy of homebrewing vs commercial - you can just add whiskey to your beer!

That said, I do exactly what Franktalk mentions - after I empty a barrel and know i'm not going to fill it for a while, I'll add a handle of cheap booze of preference to keep the wood hydrated/swollen, while recharging the alcohol flavor for the next batch. The benefits of a neutral barrel (ie. no alcohol NOR wood flavor) are geared more towards sour beers with long term aging. The oak works well for micro-oxygenation and harboring the bugs. This is what I do with my barrels once they've run their course for clean beers.

 

[SundayBrewer]

I would just add spirals or cubes inside the barrel.