Barrel aging question

[carlsonderek]

So I have become lucky enough to be hired recently to the be the part time assistant distiller at a local distilling company. I've been designing a recipe for an all grain imperial stout and I'd love to bring home one of our used 5gallon bourbon barrels to age the stout in. My question is about time and timing.

Obviously more time than usual in primary. After that, should secondary in a carboy for a few months and then put it in oak until it passes the taste test? Or should I just cut to the chase and go straight into oak after the primary, the just let it bottle condition?

 

[Austin_]

On my first use of my whiskey barrel I brewed a pale belgian and it only stayed in the barrel for 2 weeks after being in primary for a month. It sucked up the oak and whiskey rather quickly. The second time I used it I brewed a stout and it stayed in the barrel for a month before I pulled it. The third batch I put in it was an oatmeal stout that I actually primaried in the barrel with sour bugs. It ended up staying in the barrel for almost nine months.

Now that didn't answer your question about timing. I think it's just going to have to depend. Don't go in to it with any set time line. Go by taste, not by time. If I had to guess, you're probably going to want to go primary for a few weeks -> Secondary until it has mellowed -> finish in the barrel for a few weeks. It's not going to take long in a first use 5 gallon barrel.

 

[carlsonderek]

On my first use of my whiskey barrel I brewed a pale belgian and it only stayed in the barrel for 2 weeks after being in primary for a month. It sucked up the oak and whiskey rather quickly. The second time I used it I brewed a stout and it stayed in the barrel for a month before I pulled it. The third batch I put in it was an oatmeal stout that I actually primaried in the barrel with sour bugs. It ended up staying in the barrel for almost nine months.

Now that didn't answer your question about timing. I think it's just going to have to depend. Don't go in to it with any set time line. Go by taste, not by time. If I had to guess, you're probably going to want to go primary for a few weeks -> Secondary until it has mellowed -> finish in the barrel for a few weeks. It's not going to take long in a first use 5 gallon barrel.

Thanks! Yeah my gut is and was telling me to go by taste. I do agree I think letting it mellow a bit THEN putting in oak is a good way to go then bottle conditioning even longer will likely be best. Hope your barrel brews came out nicely btw!

 

[Austin_]

The first one came out interesting. It was an experiment, so I had no idea what to expect. I drank it all, but not sure if it was my thing. The second stout was great. I just bottled the sour stout a couple months back, bit the two I have had from that batch have exceeded my expectations.

Keep us posted on you brew.

 

[Bensiff]

On larger barrels I often hear the rule of thumb as 1 month per 1% abv (ie 10 months for a 10% beer). If that is the case for a full size barrel perhaps you could do some surface area math and then scale that to create a rule of thumb for a five gallon size contact time per abv%.