Sulfites in Barrel Aged Beer

[Rallymachine]

Hello, long long long time lurker--first time poster.

I have a 15gal rye whiskey barrel from FEW spirits ordered from AiH. I have 15 gallons (3 5gal batches) of imperial stout ready to fill it with but the last thing I want is for that much work to go up in smoke from an infection.

I have been doing a side experiment in the barrel while I've prepared the beer (another story for another time) but I do have about 4 gallons of barrel proof (125ish proof) whiskey in the barrel that I've been proactively rolling around for 5 months now. In theory this should probably be sufficient for sanitation but I'm nervous.

Has anyone ever added sodium or potassium metabisulfite to a barrel aged beer to keep it from getting infected? If so, was there any impact on flavor? Did you let it "breath" out of the barrel or just replace the bung and let it ride.

From my research and limited winemaking experience, sealing it in, it will continue to eliminate O2 from the beer (positive side effect) and therefore kill any yeast in suspension. I just think this method isn't very common due to the labeling regulations in the US.

Any thoughts are welcome... thanks in advance!!!

 

[Rallymachine]

BUnp, any thoughts? Has anyone ever added sulfites to beer at all?

 

[ITV]

I am also new to wooden aged beer and will offer my 2cents.

I also have a 15 gallon FEW barrel waiting to be filled. I brewed 20 gallon of RIS since the barrels will hold more then 15 gallons. Since the barrel has been empty for months I plan on filling the barrel with 10 gallons of 180 deg. water to swell the wood up and to check for leaks. I have some barrel wax incase there are any minor leaks. After rinsing the barrel with water I will pour 1.75l of Jim Beam whiskey to sanitize the barrel. Next I will fill the barrel with my RIS, put an airlock on and wait for it to oak up.

From my research the whiskey will sanitize the barrel, no need for sulfites. If you fill your barrel and have some head room left, you can purge it with CO2.

I drilled a small hole for a sampling port and put in a stainless screw to avoid sampling from the airlock (less chance of oxygen getting in).

Since I plan on gravity filling the barrel and gravity emptying the barrel, I placed the barrel at a height that I can do both without moving the filled barrel. I plan on doing this tomorrow.

Good luck with your barrel fill.

 

[ITV]

It took about 16 gallons to completely fill my barrel. I ended up using a blow off tube due to the activity.

 

[Rallymachine]

Awesome, thank you for the tip... I'll be filling mine up this weekend. I think I'll just go without sulfites for now and monitor closely to make sure it doesn't get infected.