Beer Forum

I am pondering the thought of gettting a whiskey barrel for aging Imperial stouts etc... My concern is where to put the damn thing (60 gallons) in order to keep the temp range fairly constant. I do realize that the large volume will react differently than a 5 gallon carboy and the weight of the full vessel will be ~ 600 lbs. I am thinking that my garage is gunna have to be good enough but I may have to build a temp chamber for the barrel. Any suggestions would be appreciated

Cheers,
HH

You can get smaller oak barrels. You may want to take a look at a 5 or 10 gallon. I thought about getting one and decided it was going to be to much of a PITA.

Travis

I suggest a smaller barrel also. From talking to a local commercial brewer who uses bourbon barrels alot, he suggests filling the barrel as full as possible to prevent oxidation. He had bad results when the barrel wasn't full.

You absolutely do have to keep the barrel topped up. I had thought about getting a smaller oak barrel from B3 but I am after the Whiskey essence that you gain from the barrel. I realize that I can just throw in some JD barrel chips and possibly get a similar result ( tryin not to bring it weak). You can get the used JD barrels for $85 , shipping may make the purchase more bullshit than its worth though.

You might try a local brewery if there are any near you that age beers. Tyranena Brewery in WI sells the barrels for $10 when they are done aging their beer and the Rock Bottom in Chicago gives their barrels away when they are done with them. I have thought about getting one but would have have 50-60 gallons at one time to actually use it.

A couple of things to keep in mind with using barrels:

- They impart flavor over time but lose that transfer over time. Your first batch in a new barrel may only need a few weeks for the flavors you want. The second may take 4 to 6 weeks. The third 8 to 12, etc. Getting a 55 gal whiskey barrel means putting beer in it for only a short time for the first batch. Be ready to rack soon.

- Woods breathes and oxygen is part of that. If you don't want some aging characteritics, don't put it in wood. Add wood chips to the Corny instead. Topping it up won't help much. A N2 or other inert gas can be a great help (set up a positive pressure system). It won't keep the O2 out but it will purge it out pretty quick with the inert gas purge.

Thanks for all the great input fellas. I was under the impression that I would want the beer in the barrel for an extended period of time (3-6 months). After reading your comments Danno I am thinking that if I do go this route I will need to sample more frequently in order to get the flavor profile I am looking for and not go overboard.