Whiskey Barrel Care

[Rob2010SS]

How do you guys care for your whiskey barrels?

I have one that I've used 3 times and when there's no beer in it, I literally just keep dumping handles of whiskey in it. Every week or two I go down and shake it up a bit and rotate it on its stand. It never sits dry or open. It's worked so far in regards to keeping anything unwanted out.

However, I think this will be the last use of this barrel as it's losing its potency. I plan on getting another.

I guess I'm just curious on how others maintain theirs and if I should be doing anything differently with them.

 

[ITV]

For my 15 gallon whiskey barrel I used 160 deg water with a campden tablet to swell the wood, dumped and put a handle of whiskey to santize and "flavor".

After the third use I turned it into an end table since I didn't want to risk 15 gallons of RIS going sour, plus on the third batch it was taking 8 months to extract the flavor that I wanted.

Ideally you should be ready to re-fill the barrel after emptying it to prevent it from drying out.

I have known people with 5 gallon barrels that have put 8 batches thru it since there is more surface area that reduces the amount of time the beer is spent inside the barrel. Each time the beer needs to spend more time in the barrel to get the desired flavor.