NEW Barrel

[OBSCZONER]

Hey, I have been brewing sours for a year or two now, and Am about to jump into Barrel aged Lambic, In a project where my ultimate goal is to blend an American Gueuze.

I have a brand new 6 gallon Haungarian Oak barrel. I plan to brew an English barley wine, and age that in the barrel for a few weeks, then brew another beer, not sure what yet except it will not be dark, and then age that in the barrel a few weeks. My goal from this is to extract as much color as I can from the barrel before aging my Lambic. Any suggestions on what else I can do to get rid of the color? Thank you for the time.

 

[greyhoundbrewing]

Just shooting from the hip here but what about water with a handle of cheap vodka?

 

[cardinalsfan]

I think most people do it with hot/boiling water, same as you would do with oak cubes. I've got a bourbon barrel coming soon as well and plan to do one brew in it to get the bourbon flavor out, then hit it with a hot water soak a couple times until the water comes out almost clear, then it'll be my solera.

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

A brand new barrel will have a lot of character to pull out before it's neutral enough to use for lambic. The barrels used for lambic have usually held wine or liquor for several years and have little or no character left. You'll need to strip a lot more than one beer and some hot water will pull out. Not to mention by pulling it out with hot water you're giving up the flavor that could go into other oaked beers.

 

[levifunk]

Vineyard want their wines to pick up oak tannins, so they use new barrels. Once a barrel has little to no tannins left, they have no use for the barrel. I'm not sure how many batches of beer it would take to turn your new barrel into a neutral barrel, but that is what you are looking for. Once a batch of beer no longer picks up oak tannin flavor, then its ready for you to use. At that point, give it a good wash and try to remove as much "beer" flavor from it. If the barrel has too much tannins left in it, the resulting lambic will taste very astringent. This is only multiplied by the fact you are using a 6 gallon barrel which results in greater wood contact of the lambic.

When you do get to the lambic stage with this barrel, and if you intend to age it for years to blend back for geuze, you should consider the O2 permeation of a 6 gallon barrel is much greater than the standard wine barrels used. I'd recommend waxing it:
http://funkfactorybrewing.blogspot.com/2012/02/paraffin-waxing-barrel.html

 

[hermsfun]

I did something similar this past year with a new 55 gallon barrel. My friends and I brewed a higher gravity beer fermented primary in the barrel and sampled it until it was getting too oaky. We pulled that and added a Flanders red. So far it has been sitting there for 4 months and hasn't picked up too much oak. Cool pelicle too btw. Something else I looked into was barolkleen (?). I've read that it'll do a great job at stripping oak and tannins from a newer barrel. I would have done this if we were doing 55 of lambic but I thought a red could handle some oak. The oaked beer turned out awesome too btw. It's a great beer to poor in a tulip glass and let slowly warm up as you sip... Barrels are awesome, good luck!

 

[OBSCZONER]

Thank you all for the replies! Sorry I have not replied, Very busy as of late and only have time to pop in and out.

I know that with a 6 gallon barrel I should be expecting more oak character and oxygen intake and whatnot, thanks for the heads up. Now I know I need to use the barrel for a while before I proceed with my Lambic all good though. I like barrel aged beers, but not so much the bourbon, or hard alcohol period. I think Im gonna throw a batch of Old vine Zin in there for a few months and then decide what to do from there. Defiantly Want to fill it with Lambic eventually though.

Somebody mentiond Waxing the barrel. I have seen many folks do this, but Im not clear on what kind of wax to use. I assume Parafilm? or something similar. Any clarity is appreciated. Once again, Thanks for the time all. I appreciate it

Also, Im not so sure of the usernames on this site, but a few of you who have replied. I do read your blogs, Great work and very informational. I appreciate you taking your time to help all of us other brewers.

 

[levifunk]

Somebody mentiond Waxing the barrel. I have seen many folks do this, but Im not clear on what kind of wax to use. I assume Parafilm? or something similar. Any clarity is appreciated.

Its "paraffin wax", and I linked a blog post above describing the process. Read the comments on the page as well as there was some further discussion/calculations. For you, I'd recommend waxing the entire barrel except for the heads.

 

[OBSCZONER]

Its "paraffin wax", and I linked a blog post above describing the process. Read the comments on the page as well as there was some further discussion/calculations. For you, I'd recommend waxing the entire barrel except for the heads.

Thank ya sir, This is the post I was looking for yesterday, guess I should pay more attention. thanksfor the time

 

[OBSCZONER]

and just curious, why do you suggest waxing the whole barrel " for me ", Because im inexperiened? or because of my purposes or the fact that its a 6 gallon barrel

 

[bottlebomber]

and just curious, why do you suggest waxing the whole barrel " for me ", Because im inexperiened? or because of my purposes or the fact that its a 6 gallon barrel

He was saying that in your case, he recommends waxing the whole barrel. He neither offered nor suggested that he was to do it for you.

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

and just curious, why do you suggest waxing the whole barrel " for me ", Because im inexperiened? or because of my purposes or the fact that its a 6 gallon barrel

I think he meant because of the size of your barrel.

 

[levifunk]

I think he meant because of the size of your barrel.

This.

 

[OBSCZONER]

He was saying that in your case, he recommends waxing the whole barrel. He neither offered nor suggested that he was to do it for you.

yea, never implied he was to do it for me. Thanks though

This.

Thanks, thats What I figured I was just making sure

 

[OBSCZONER]

I'd recommend waxing it:
http://funkfactorybrewing.blogspot.com/2012/02/paraffin-waxing-barrel.html

So I plan to coat the outside of the barrel with Paraffin wax, However I cannot find the stuff at any Homebrew shops. I see they have it at wal mart, for waxing your feet haha. Same stuff? Just at a loss of where to find it and thought you might know. Thanks for the time

I saw the link in your post that leads to paraffin wax at walmart as well, but am not sure if you did that, or if the internet did it automatically

 

[levifunk]

Yea, I bought the paraffin wax from Wal-Mart. I've never heard of using it to wax your feet...haha...but I know it has a million uses. Canning, candle-making, and chocolate-making seem to be the most common. If you are looking at something specifically for waxing feet, that might be the wrong item. Make sure it has no scented oils or anything else added.

 

[OBSCZONER]

haha I appreciate it, Ill make sure its the kind for canning or something. Thanks for the information man, Cheers!

 

[mors]

I finally got around to waxing my barrel today. Been planning on doing it for a good 6 months now... Brewed up 6 gallons of Oud Bruin and 5 gallons of Flanders Red. Flanders went into the waxed barrel and the barrel is now soured. At any rate here are pictures of the process. First I melted all the paraffin in a double boiler (can in a pot of water). Then I used a cheap paint brush to apply the wax to the barrel. Once that was done there was alot of wax on the barrel. So I cleaned up the wax with a torch and got most the excess wax off. I only waxed the sides of the barrel. I left the ends unwaxed to allow some oxygen transfer in those areas.

 

[levifunk]

Fantastic Job! It looks great!

 

[Brew-boy]

Newbie here on Barrels what does the wax do?

 

[mors]

prevents oxygen from coming through the oak. I left the ends unwaxed to allow oxygen only through the ends. This is in an attempt to get oxygen transfer similar to that of a full size wine barrel.

 

[Brew-boy]

Cool thanks...