Beer Forum

My christmas present this year is a 8 Gallon freshly dumped whiskey barrel. It is coming in a couple of weeks. I have not had time to plan using this. Does anyone have a good recipe and now how to prep this and when to add beer? After primary or secondary? How much head space? How long and what temp? my basement is ussualy 55-60 degrees this time of year.

Pick your favorite strong beer (imperial stout, Belgian dark strong, barleywine, etc) and rack it into the barrel as a secondary with as little headspace as possible. If you don't have one, there are a lot of clone/good recipes around on the forum or in Brewing Classic styles. Let that ride in your cool basement (cellar temps mostly) and start checking samples after a month or so. Keep I. Mind that it will pick up character fairly quickly because if the thinner staves and high surface area compared to the volume. Either way, that's a killer gift and a way to pay it back by making a style everyone can enjoy.

Brew up a 10 gallon strong beer. Better yet, brew up 15. Fill the barrel with beer out of primary and age some of the same beer in carboys. The angels will take their share slowly so you'll need to top it off. You'll have extra beer to blend back with the barrelled beer to get the character just right.

I think i'm going to use a stout recipe as follows..
12 gallons
30 lbs 2-row
1.75 lbs Black malt
1.25 lbs roasted barley
.75 lbs Crystal 120
.50 lbs Carafa III
4 oz Willamette 60 min
2 oz cascade 15 min
2 oz cascade 1 min
Wyeast northwest ale 1332 starter


Do I have to do anything to the barrel before I rack from primary?

You don't have to do anything to prep the barrel. Look inside to see if the wood is still wet.
If not pour some whiskey in the barrel and roll it around occasionally to keep the wood wet and swollen.
When your ready to fill it with beer drain the whiskey and drink it.
When you wake up fill the barrel with beer.
Good luck!

Don't let the barrel dry out if it will be stored for months before you brew. You can let it dry out but you will have to re-swell it before filling. If you want to keep the whiskey flavor for your beer, put some of your favorite whiskey in there to keep it wet and sanitary inside. Move the barrel each day to keep the whole thing wet. Before you fill it, dump the whiskey and keep it for consumption. If you don't want a whiskey forward beer, you can fill with a holding solution of k-meta (11.25g/gal) and citric acid (5.25g/gal). Before use, thoroughly rinse the holding solution with hot (180F) water. I don't like whiskey forward beers so I use the holding solution.

I suspect this is a Black Swan cooperage Woodinville Whiskey Barrel? If so, they are well made barrels with thick staves for the size. They do not have a lot or any char chunks inside compared to others. If there are char chunks, you want to get them out so they don't clog your transfer equipment.

I waxed 2/3's of the outside of my 8 gallon barrel to simulate the oxygen pick-up a 53 gallon barrel would get assuming similar stave thickness. I put a 12.5% RIS in it for 4 months and it won second place in a local comp (scored a 45). With hind sight, I probably would have taken it out at 3 months but not earlier. It's a little too tannic I believe from the extreme wood contact due to the honeycombing in the barrel. Use the Vinnie nail trick to take samples without opening the bung to determine when you want to package. I use a double drilled stopper to CO2 purge and pressurize the barrel before counter pressure filling from the fermenter. It's a good idea to put clean beer into the barrel (especially if you want to use it again) so I always do an extended cold crash and gelatin. Then let it warm to room temp before transferring. Cold beer in a barrel will expand when it warms and start to leak out of the bung. Fill it up all the way and only open the bung if you trust your environment and practices to be super clean. Otherwise, do not top off. Store no warmer than 70F, low 60's is better.

My Woodinville is on it's second beer, a Wee-Heavy that went in last week. Last night I transferred a Rye Barleywine into a 10 gallon Dad's Hat Rye Whiskey Barrel. I took some good pics that I can post later tonight.

captain carrot wrote:to keep the wood wet and swollen.

captain carrot wrote:...roll it around occasionally to keep the wood wet and swollen.