No-Chill and Whiskey Barrel

[Austin_]

I'm a no-chiller. Have been for many years now. I usually use plastic jerry cans to store the wort in. I am going to be doing a Tart of Darkness clone here soon. I will be fermenting in my whiskey barrel. The question is, can I drain the hot wort directly into the barrel and let it cool overnight like I normally would do in a jerry can, or would the hot wort leach some undesirable flavors out of the wood?

It's been a good while since I used the barrel. Maybe a year. A couple months ago I got it swelled back up to stop leaking and then treated it with boiling water and then campden tablets. Hopefully most of the undesirable bugs are gone before I put my bugs in there, but I wouldn't mind treating it one more time with boiling water just to be sure. Would be nice to use hot wort instead and save some time and propane.

 

[Austin_]

I never got any responses and never found too much information online, but I went ahead and did it anyways. You never know until you try, right? Most of the oak and whiskey had been sucked out by previous batches, so who knows. Maybe it needed a little heat to pull out some more oak flavor. It's cooling now, and I'll pitch yeast in the morning. I'll keep this thread posted for anyone who is interested.

 

[Mcbobs]

Keep her going. I'd be interested to see how it turns out. I did a 10 gallon batch of a Tart of Darkness clone yesterday as well but I'm gonna oak in carboys with dowels. I'm not fortunate enough to have a barrel.

 

[Austin_]

An update at the 6 month mark.

Everything seems to have worked out fine. No problems with chilling in the barrel overnight. I initially pitched Roselare, but have dumped some various bottle dregs in there since then. A sample I recently pulled had the sourness coming along nicely with no strange off-flavors from pouring hot wort in a barrel. Sitting around 1.012. I'm planning on letting it stay in the barrel until September. I'll update then.

 

[Austin_]

9 month update.

I bottled the beer the other day as I'm moving and would rather move a box of bottles than have a barrel sloshing around in the back of the moving truck. Everything seems to be going normally. No long term effects of dumping the hot wort in the barrel. Nice acidity to the beer as well as oak, bourbon, and char. Can't wait to see how this beer develops over the next few years.

I drank the flat last little bit that wasn't enough to fill a bottle. Looking forward to a little carbonation.

 

[troy2000]

Thanks for the update. I hate getting to the bottom of a thread, and asking myself, "wonder how that turned out?"

 

[badmajon]

Yeah I also appreciate it!

 

[Austin_]

Thanks for the update. I hate getting to the bottom of a thread, and asking myself, "wonder how that turned out?"

Me too! That's why I kept this updated and will continue to do so.

 

[Ramitt]

Thanks for updating,.