Primary in Whiskey Barrel

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dantastic01SS

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Hello brewers! :mug:

I'll try to keep this as brief as possible. I'm in the military and go home to Maine for Christmas each year. Last year I got my brother into brewing and we made a batch of flemmish sour which we planned on drinking this year. Our plan was to brew a new batch each Christmas and drink some of the previous years brew. My newest idea is to get an old whiskey barrel, drop in the pelicle from our sour, fill w/ wort and let it sit for the year. This way we can just rack off 5 gallons for bottling around Thanksgiving then fill it back up when we do our next brew. My only concern is that neither of us will be around the brew for most of the year and I know that most people like to move to oak for secondary and I'm not sure what the effects of doing primary in the barrel would be. Love that sour stuff! :rockin: Thanks for the help!
 
I think you will be amazed at how well the sours do in long oak primary. Just remember Brettanomyces can also eat the sugars (cellobiose) from the oak barrel and tends to dramatically slow down at 3.4 pH so keep that in mind if your not around to keep an eye on it. What strain are you going to use? anomalous, bruxellensis, lambicus or claussenii The pellicle will form in the vessel to guard against oxidation during real long ferments. Just keep in mind also sours are done when they are done and us as the brewer don't have much control over that like we do using Saccharomyces..
I say do it myself. You will never know unless you try right? Just make sure the barrel is not leaking before you dump in the Brett and wort.

Hope that helps.

Cheers
Jay
 
I think you will be amazed at how well the sours do in long oak primary. Just remember Brettanomyces can also eat the sugars (cellobiose) from the oak barrel and tends to dramatically slow down at 3.4 pH so keep that in mind if your not around to keep an eye on it. What strain are you going to use? anomalous, bruxellensis, lambicus or claussenii The pellicle will form in the vessel to guard against oxidation during real long ferments. Just keep in mind also sours are done when they are done and us as the brewer don't have much control over that like we do using Saccharomyces..
I say do it myself. You will never know unless you try right? Just make sure the barrel is not leaking before you dump in the Brett and wort.

Hope that helps.

Cheers
Jay

I was planning on racking the sour beer we already made and dumping the bugs from that beer into the barrel to innoculate the fresh wort in the barrel. We used WLP655 for that one. Should I add more Lactobacillus and Pediococcus to the barrel? I was just planning on using some fresh Saccharomyces and Brettanomyces along with the bugs from our previous batch. I have lots of time to figure it out so I'd appreciate anyone telling me that my plan sucks. I can change it. :D
 
Ohhh Well 655 is just a combo of all so what you used is Lacto, Pedio, Sacch and Brett all in one pack. I guess the question is what are you shooting for? I was under the impression you were just using Brett for the ferment (maybe I read something into your OP) anyway the WLP-655-1 is killer and will do a great job in the primary for you for a long ferment. Its a slow starter and long developer so if it was me I would just get more 655 and go from there.
Cheers
Jay
 
Ohhh Well 655 is just a combo of all so what you used is Lacto, Pedio, Sacch and Brett all in one pack. I guess the question is what are you shooting for? I was under the impression you were just using Brett for the ferment (maybe I read something into your OP) anyway the WLP-655-1 is killer and will do a great job in the primary for you for a long ferment. Its a slow starter and long developer so if it was me I would just get more 655 and go from there.
Cheers
Jay

Really just shooting for a sour beer that we can evolve over some years in that barrel without babysitting it too much. Probably mess around with doing blends from the barrel-aged beer. We'll just have to give it a shot and see how it comes out. Thanks for the help! :rockin:
 
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