So my favorite beer is a bourbon barrel aged stout. I know that you can buy a used bourbon barrel from places even as small as 5G but my situation was different. I was going to be deploying for 12 months starting in November of 2012. So I thought what a cool project that I could do while I was away and wouldn't have to try and not drink it haha. So I purchased a medium char virgin white oak barrel. I filled it with 5 Gallons of Kentucky Gentleman. No its not the greatest bourbon but I couldnt afford to buy anything much more expensive than that not 5 Gallons worth anyway. I filled the barrel with just below boiling water and sat it in the spare bathrooms tub. It did seep leak for the first few days as the wood swelled. From there I drained it and filled it with bourbon. I left my dad 3 extra handles and he topped it off throughout the year. I think it only soaked up about 1.5-2 if I remember right. I wanted to get the bourbon out sooner but life kinda got in the way. I had the first beer ready to go into the barrel in May of 2014. So the bourbon had been in the barrel 18 months. I racked the bourbon out of the barrel and into a carboy and put the first beer straight in which was a New Hollands Dragons Milk Clone. I let it age for close to 4 weeks. When I decided it was done I racked the beer out of the barrel into a carboy and racked the bourbon back in and let the bourbon sit again for 4 weeks in the barrel because my second beer wasnt quite ready to go in. I repeated the process above and put the second beer in. It is almost done. I couldnt resist at this point and I started to consume the bourbon. It is very very smooth and significantly better than when it went in the barrel. I was hoping it would maybe pick up a little bit of stout flavor but it didnt really at all the stout wasn't in the barrel long enough. New Holland I believe sells a "stout aged bourbon" but in their barrel sizes it probably does soak up some stout flavor but this one is to small so the beer doesn't stay in it long enough. I guess at this point I am debating what to do with the barrel as I feel the barrel is probably close to the end of its flavor imparting life. I got 10 Gallons of stout and 5 Gallons of better bourbon than I started with so I feel the $120 for the barrel was spread evenly across multiple good returns.
I saw these made from a larger bourbon barrel and they are really cool I was kinda thinking about cutting it in half and putting a piece of glass over the top after finishing the inside and making some small end tables or something. Still working that idea out I guess.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=484126
This was a really fun project that produced great results!! I have the first batch of beer that came out aging in a carboy and the other will be the same I probably wont touch them for another couple of months but then I will keg and force carb but I want to bottle some off the keg and do something cool with the bottles maybe dip them like makers mark or something I dont know I will post as they progress.
I saw these made from a larger bourbon barrel and they are really cool I was kinda thinking about cutting it in half and putting a piece of glass over the top after finishing the inside and making some small end tables or something. Still working that idea out I guess.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=484126
This was a really fun project that produced great results!! I have the first batch of beer that came out aging in a carboy and the other will be the same I probably wont touch them for another couple of months but then I will keg and force carb but I want to bottle some off the keg and do something cool with the bottles maybe dip them like makers mark or something I dont know I will post as they progress.
