Barrel Aging Beer

yeah not sure mate. I think in the old days they (distillers) first started out using 5 and 10 gallon barrels but not anymore I don't think, maybe try and locate a boutique style distiller who might still use small tubs, or a home distiller?

Sorry my internet is being stupid tonight super slow...I think i will just buy a new oak barrel and try that, im also gonna get one for wine as well.

Sounds good mate, let us know how ya get on.

Another thing you can do, and this is something that breweries do with lambics and even imperial stouts/barley wines that are barrel aged, is make the base beer again and blend the two. In a brand new oak barrel, you should get a LOT of tannin extraction from the oak the first time you use it, and it can actually overwhelm the palette if you get too much. Being able to blend it back is an option for you in case you accidentally go down this road.

Another idea to get the bourbon in there is to just add about 1-2 cups of bourbon into the barrel when you add the beer, just like you would for any bourbon oaked beer in a secondary fermenter. You probably won't get the complexity of a Parabola, but the bourbon flavor is pretty easy to get into your beer without having to actually make bourbon in the barrel or fill the entire contents of the barrel with bourbon and let it soak.

Good luck! I would love to know how this develops!

Thats great info, just to recap for my stupid brain lol....either mix it back to another beer after the aging OR add some bourbon to the beer in the barrel as a secondary thinks thats what i understood. Thanks man

lilfear1 wrote:

Thats great info, just to recap for my stupid brain lol....either mix it back to another beer after the aging OR add some bourbon to the beer in the barrel as a secondary thinks thats what i understood. Thanks man

I was throwing out two separate concepts. The blending can fix any over absorption of oak or bourbon that you might accidentally get. You'll want to add the bourbon regardless.

Just to clarify, a brand new oak barrel might make your beer too astringent with oak tannin, and if it does that then you can fix it by blending it with another beer. If it doesn't, then you don't need to worry!

To get the bourbon flavor in, add 1-2 cups of bourbon. If you taste the beer and the bourbon flavor is too powerful, you can also use the blending technique to tone down the bourbon flavor.

For example, my local brewery made their first bourbon barrel aged imperial stout recently. They aged the beer for over a year in the barrel. When they tasted it, it was WAY over powering with bourbon flavor. They had to brew the imperial stout again and blend it with the bourbon barrel aged version to tone down the bourbon flavor. With a 50/50 blend, that is double the final product!

Hope that makes sense!

Cheers,
ABA

You think 1-2 cups of bourbon in a 5 gallon barrel isnt too much?

It depends on your tastes. 1 cup seems to be a standard amount according to one thread on homebrewtalk. BasicBrewing radio had a couple of podcasts that you might be interested in listening too as well:

traffic.libsyn.com/basicbrewing/bbr04-19-12andybarrel.mp3
traffic.libsyn.com/basicbrewing/bbr02-02-12bourbon.mp3

Awesome info mate. Cheers

This is amazing, I am still listening to the podcast. Great info, Thanks man.