What to do with the Oak Barrel I just bought??

[mexican]

Hey Thirsty,

You could always come over to my place and we could brew a larger batch together and see how it goes. I can do probably 40-45 litre batches on my system.

mex.

[Thirsty Boy]

Thanks Mexican,

If I decide to fill it up with a "big" beer, I might just take you up on that. I'm going to give it a good sanitization workout, and run a K&K through it to see if I can ferment (2ndry) clean beer in there and to see if it has any oak character left,

If not on either count, then there isn't much point using it to just age in (apart from coolness factor) so I will probably use it for sour beers where the wood can give a nice home to the bugs and the oxygen permiability can make them happy

Of course, if its still got some oak and its clean, then you and I can fill it up with barleywine or imperial stout and split it up a year later....mmmmmmmmm

Thirsty

[Thirsty Boy]

Thanks Mexican,

If I decide to fill it up with a "big" beer, I might just take you up on that. I'm going to give it a good sanitization workout, and run a K&K through it to see if I can ferment (2ndry) clean beer in there and to see if it has any oak character left,

If not on either count, then there isn't much point using it to just age in (apart from coolness factor) so I will probably use it for sour beers where the wood can give a nice home to the bugs and the oxygen permiability can make them happy

Of course, if its still got some oak and its clean, then you and I can fill it up with barleywine or imperial stout and split it up a year later....mmmmmmmmm

Thirsty

[mexican]

No problems Thirsty !

I can handle a 40 litre boil and could handle around 18-20 kilos of grain in my system. Its probably a 10 gallon system in imperial-speak.

Well the offer is there if you're interested.

Have fun

mex.

[Thirsty Boy]

Alright....

I just picked up the barrel. Basically, its better than I dared to hope.

It isn't even empty!!! The person who sold it, her son advised her to not empty it out because that would be bad for the barrel, It still has inside a good couple of litres of PORT.

Short of there being spirits in thre, I couildn't have asked for a better option. No leaks ( i have rolled it around to check) and filled with something that has a high enough ABV to make the infection worry pretty much a non event.

The port even smells GOOD. I didn't have a taste though because its got all kinds of sediment and crud mixed up in it now that I have rolled the barrel around the place

So.... whats going to taste good on top of port flavours?? A big robust porter? or perhaps a russian imperial stout?

mmm possibilities

Thirsty