Small Barrels

[radwizard]

Is anyone having any luck with small barrels. I've been to freaked out to give it a shot, but always interested.
I have been reading a few articles on sealing smaller barrels with parafin wax to limit o2 ingress. Has anyone done this?

I've been thinking pretty hard about getting a 10 Gallon Barrel to do 6 months or less ferments in (Sac/Brett). I see some barrels I could get my hands on right away, locally, that are 8 gallon.

I'm getting good oak flavors from spirals and cubes now, but just curious to try something new out, but still don't want to waste my money (and beer) on a barrel if this whole idea is bound to fail.

 

[Dcpcooks]

Barrel aging is pretty straight forward and simple. Don't overthink it. I typically use 10-15 gallon barrels for clean beers for a batch or two and then convert them for sour beers. The smaller barrels have more surface area per gallon than larger barrels so flavor transfer happens much faster. That limits the amount of time you need to keep beer in them.

I've never used wax to seal it up and never had any issues with oxidation even with extended aging. Two of my 15 gallon barrels have beer from a year ago in them.

You'll want to install a Vinnie nail to pull samples. It's just a stainless nail in the cap that lets you pull small samples with out disturbing the pellicle.

The key thing to consider is keeping them full of beer. You don't want them sitting around empty for any long periods. Get a freshly dumped barrel and rack a nice stout in it. Let it pull the bourbon and oak out for a month or two. Then you can add a barley wine or another stout for another month or two. At that point you've pulled the bourbon out of the wood and you can age sours in them.

I don't clean them other than a rinse before I switch them to sours.

Good luck

 

[crane]

I have an 8 gallon barrel and initially had oxidation issues on my first sour beer I put on there. It was at the peak of summer when I put the first sour in after a few clean beers. I have since then used paraffin wax to seal most of the staves and both heads. I was getting over a half gallon of evaporation per month originally. Now I'm getting a half gallon in more like 4-6 months depending on the ambient temperature/humidity.

I am now using it for a pseudo solara. Every 6 months I brew a Flanders red base. At that time I pull 5 gallons out of the barrel and put it in a corny keg. I then transfer 5-6 gallons from a carboy imto the barrel, leaving the yeast cake behind. Freshly brewed wort goes into the carboy on the old yeast cake and a few spare gallons go into 1 gallon jugs and get fermented clean with US05 for topping off the various vessels. I have done a few 10 gallon batches here and there to get another 5 gallons that never sees the barrel. I am trying to build up a diverse blending stock. The first batch that came out of the barrel was too acetic and had too strong of an oak flavor to use on its own, but has added nice complexity when blending a small amount with other bases. The one in there now has no acetic flavors and a much mellower oak flavor.

If I get any more barrels this small I will definitely wax them right away.

 

[MadHomebrewer]

I've been debating doing a RIS. My plan was to buy a barrel stave from AIH. Keg my beer in a corny with the stave inside with co2 on top and let it age at room temp in the keg for a while.

 

[radwizard]

Thank You guys for the advice. Shortly after posting the thread I came across a great deal on freshly dumped 15 gallon barrels. $75 - I just sent an email about shipping... I'll leave the link here for anyone who is interested.

View attachment KFS-Offer-Dads-Hat-Barrels-15gal.pdf

 

[505-Brewer]

Thats a good deal if local.

 

[ramonallones]

i emailed them last week and they said its 99 bucks for homebrewers, unless you order 8 and then you can get the 75 dollar price. i ordred 2, only 8 bucks shipping and no tax so not bad.

 

[radwizard]

Yeah, I stumbled across that link on Milk The Funk. It was posted a few hours after my OP. It looked like a really good deal.

I am gonna go with a 5 or 8 barrel first, and work my way up to a Dad's Hat. I want to go through the process a few times of prepping a whiskey barrel for Brett Beers. I feel like I should brew a couple successful big beers, in the smaller barrels. I haven't really brewed a lot of Big Beers and want to nail down some solid recipes before I brew 15 Gallons of them. I'm pretty excited to try out some of these barrels.

 

[505-Brewer]

5 gal is way more manageable unless your brewing 15-20 gal bbls its sort of a pain to manage 15 gals.

 

[radwizard]

Yeah, that is what I was thinking. The pain is is brewing 15-20 gallons of big strong beer, for me. I have a lot of mixed stuff around I can blend into a bigger barrel, but I still have to go through the process of "taming" the barrel.

Honestly, I am doing really good beers now with oak cubes and carboy. It is more about just wanting to enjoy the barrel process and try something new.