So I am going to brew a lambic/american wild ale. That being said i'm going to fill a 59gl wine barrel by myself. I plan on doing two double brew day of 11gl batches of about 1.072 wort. So i will end up with 44gallons of 1.072 wort. I will then delude the wort with about 12 gallons of water to equal 56 gallons of 1.053 wort. I will be inoculating the wort with 5gl of ecy20 sour that is 3-4months old, and 5 gallons of another sour made from dregs that is about 6 months old. So the total would be 66 gallons of beer, about 7 gallons will be kept for top offs to equal 59gl in the oak barrel and 6-7 in a glass carboy to be used if the barrel needs to be topped off from time to time.
I pretty much know that I can brew enough beer to fill a 59gl barrel, my question is do you think that I should do primary in the barrel? Keep in mind i hope to make this a solera project that I would like to keep going for 5+ years, taking 15gallons once or twice a year and filling with fresh or maybe even really young sour beer that has gone through primary fermentation. I could do primary fermentation in a few carboys and 15gl water storage containers, then transfer into the oak barrel.
here are my options....
option 1 - just do primary in the barrel. its the most simple way to fill a 59 barrel by yourself. Lambic breweries do it this way.....why not?
option 2 - do primary fermentation in carboys and a couple of 15 gallon water containers even though this is going to cost extra and be more of a pain in the a$$.
I'm a little worried about autolysis developing in the beer long term(3+ years).
I would like to hear back from people that have done large solera projects longer that 3 years, and what you have experienced, or maybe have read about solera project. I'll be starting the project very soon!!!!:rockin:
I pretty much know that I can brew enough beer to fill a 59gl barrel, my question is do you think that I should do primary in the barrel? Keep in mind i hope to make this a solera project that I would like to keep going for 5+ years, taking 15gallons once or twice a year and filling with fresh or maybe even really young sour beer that has gone through primary fermentation. I could do primary fermentation in a few carboys and 15gl water storage containers, then transfer into the oak barrel.
here are my options....
option 1 - just do primary in the barrel. its the most simple way to fill a 59 barrel by yourself. Lambic breweries do it this way.....why not?
option 2 - do primary fermentation in carboys and a couple of 15 gallon water containers even though this is going to cost extra and be more of a pain in the a$$.
I'm a little worried about autolysis developing in the beer long term(3+ years).
I would like to hear back from people that have done large solera projects longer that 3 years, and what you have experienced, or maybe have read about solera project. I'll be starting the project very soon!!!!:rockin:
Even if you don't have enough fermenter space to fill the entire barrel in one day, I think you would be fine. You could fill the rest of the 10 gallons within 2-3 weeks and I don't think that would hurt anything. I am looking forward to watching your youtube videos on this project! Cheers!
