Barrel Fermented vs Barrel Aged

Barrels don't always sit around with beer in them. And they don't always exhibit positive pressure. My point includes scenarios including, but not limited to, new barrels shipped empty, freshly emptied barrels sitting open to ambient conditions, barrels filled with a contaminated batch of beer where said contaminant is absorbed into wood pores, a lazy tech taking a sample with a dirty wine thief etc.

 

If they have beer in them, they should, as there is still CO2 dissolved in solution after fermentation has finished and a stable terminal gravity has been reached.

Not saying that they always do, but they certainly should have positive pressure when full of beer.

There are certainly many, many reasons for contamination. I think that we can agree on this. Microbes penetrating a sealed barrel full of beer from the ambient is not one of them.

 

Sometimes contamination just happens and there’s nothing you can do but scratch your head and shrug. I once saw a batch of barrels emptied at a distillery, purged with co2, driven down the street to a neighboring brewery and immediately filled with a batch of bright beer. 6 months later one was contaminated and the other three were fine.

There are certainly things you can do to mitigate risk, but contamination will happen in a barrel program. It’s inevitable.

The key to running a successful barrel program is extensive micro testing and removing barrels that go funky. Or get a flash pasteurizer and you can use barrels that taste fine but test positive for micro.
...or you can just blend that good and bad barrels together, release the beer and let it sour in the bottle, then when people complain, just tell them that 3.6 pH is totally normal for a dark beer.

 

That situation makes me smh.

 

Maybe. I remember watching the Goose vid where they discuss and show the barrels getting made. The guys who make them took pride in choosing the right pieces to fit together. Considering finding the right pieces an art in itself. Perhaps the wrong fitting could lead to contamination.

 

Seems like any positive pressure would dissipate quickly once water starts evaporating and leaves space in the barrel. Maybe that process takes longer than I'm expecting.

 

You aren't losing that much to evaporation with beer. Very little, in fact, even when aging for years. Same goes with wine. Spirits, however, are a different story, as the higher alcohol level makes them more volatile and they tend to be aged longer in environments that are not temperature or humidity controlled, like beer and wine are.