Barrel Aging 5 gallons

I had great results with aging for 3 weeks in a Balcones Barrel. The oak was just right for me. The Barrel was fresh after being used once from Balcones. Personally, the whiskey aroma and taste was more powerful than I wanted but the oak was just right. YMMV.

 

This goes against conventional wisdom and everything I've heard.

A friend of mine used (2) 5 gallon barrels from a local distillery. I'm not exactly sure what type of wood the barrel is/was and I can try and find that out because that's probably what played in his favor.

He aged an imperial brown ale and an American Barleywine in the barrels for 7-8 months.

The beers we're absolutely incredible. The American Barleywine is probably one of the best barrel aged beers I've ever had. Huge notes of vanilla/toffee/coconut with some bourbon notes as well. Absolutely no intense oakey/woody flavors that I could perceive. Also the beers didn't seem oxidized at all which is of course a big concern with small barrels.

I need to see if I can't get my hands on some of those particular barrels. I've had good luck with 15 gallon dad hat barrels but not near the depth of flavor he achieved.

 

No he didn't.

 

Hopefully @GUNSLINGER will chime into this thread since he has experience here.

In a past thread he posted:

“Any barrel less than 5 gallons volume is also hard to attain a good flavor profile with as well. Too much surface area of the beer coming into contact with the wood.

I like 8 and 10 gallon barrels, easy to fill, can still lift them and move around and they taste great.

True 55 gallon barrels are the best. They are magical.”

https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/bourbon-barrel-aging.417578/#post-4788474

Cheers!

 

Who's lifting an 80+ pound barrel on their own??

 

Men

But as far as this thread goes I think it really all comes down to tasting the beer often enough to get an idea of how it changes. I've only barrel aged two clean beers and they were both in there about 3 weeks each. The barrel character was not overwhelming each time. As far as sour beers in barrels go, for my brewing process, I usually keep them in there 2-3 months and by then they are sufficiently sour, but they have a clean sourness. When I left them in there longer they developed a harsh acidity that I didn't like.

 

I left my 100% Brett Imperial Stout in a first use Balcones for 6+ months, it tastes of whiskey and oak for sure, vanilla bomb. Wish I had some of the straight Imp Stout to blend with it. May have to rebrew that in November to blend it out.

 

A 55 gallon full sized barrel, even though it's TEN times larger by volume, only has about double the surface area of a 5 gallon barrel.
It's something to consider (think weeks/months not months/years) but is not a dealbreaker. Love those balcones barrels specifically.

 

I found a 55 gallon rum barrel... I regret wussing out. I have enough fermenters and friends, I could have filled it. He who hesitates is lost.

 

A friend of mine got his brewin buddy's together and they all made IRS 5 gallon batches to fill a barrel. The brew came out quite good an they had fun. I'd go for it

 

Everyone has their opinions and preferences regarding barrel/wood aging.

The surface area is but a small aspect of small barrel Vs. Large Barrel. It makes quite a difference though. Differences in temperature, pressure and the specific barrel/charring/first use/second use/virgin versus spirit aged, etc- all play a big role individually as well as working in harmony.

I find that you have to take samples and taste often to get to the desired level of oak/spirit you are going for. We all have a different palette and different ideas of what is too much or too little oak or spirit flavor.

Taste often and pull it when you are satisfied.

Some people like to steam clean or add boiling water to rinse away spirit from barrels as they like the pure oak flavor more than the spirit/oak flavor.

I prefer a balance between spirit and oak flavor in MOST beers I barrel age.

Balcone's 5 gallon barrels are great. I've gone through about 20 of them now.
Also the 8 gallon Woodenville barrels are wonderful.

My process is to soak the barrels in whiskey, or whatever spirit you like for a bit before adding your beer to it. It helps to season the barrel with flavors. I typically pull the first run of spirit I soak and then keep it for later seasoning.

^What I find here is that I pull a bit of tanin out with he initial spirit soaking/removal and add a bit of spirit flavor to the barrel. Then after the first brew is done aging I soak again and allow the spirit to fully be absorbed by the barrel. This puts some tanin back into the barrel and adds some more spirit flavor.

I do this 3-5 times depending on the barrel, the beers and the aging/flavors I'm getting and then sour the barrel or give it to a friend to use.

Sometimes I will add a few oak cubes directly to the barrel as well if I want a more woody/oakey character.

I typically age beers in the following order(s). ESB, Barleywine, Belgian Dubbel, Imperial
Stout, whatever sour beer I decide to do.

I find I can keep the ESB on for a very short period of time to get the desired flavor, then the barleywine for a longer period of time, the dubbel for even longer and the stout for even longer. But that is not always the case.

Sometimes I get the oak flavor I'm looking for in a shorter period of time after the initial use or two. It's always a bit different really.

I have 3 different areas of the house I keep barrels in, they each impart a different variable as far as temperature variances that impart different flavors/depth to each beer.

Gotta try a bunch of different stuff and taste often to know what is happening. See what works for you.

 

Interesting@GUNSLINGER, in getting oak flavor I the same when oaking barley wine and imperial stouts, tho I do not use barrels.
Now I have to try oaking a esb

 

Also, to respond to "oxidation" concerns. I have had discussions with brewers who are worried to sample their barrel aged beers out of fear they will oxidize them. I understand the logic here as brewers we are so against having oxygen in contact with beer- for good reason.

But it really isn't an issue. I literally taste/sample my barrel aged beers all the time, sometimes once a week to once every day or two when they are getting close to where I want them.

I typically let them go at least 3-4 weeks before my initial sampling, then taste them once every 2 weeks or every week depending on my sensory perception of that first sample and where I want the beer to go. Then I sample them more and more often as time goes on to hit that perfect stage of flavor and pull them.

I make sure I have the next brew timed out right so I am not waiting too long to fill the barrel again after "re-seasoning" it with spirit..

I've never had a beer go bad. I've never cleaned a barrel with campden tablets or boiling water (Although I did use boiling water to strip a barrel; of in my opinion a "bad tasting spirit" and soaked it in a good one before use). Never soaked a barrel in water at all. Just spirit and brew. If it needs to be soaked to seal it up (Always check new barrels for leaks prior to filling them up all the way!) I just use spirits to seal the leak.

I have a 20 ML Pipette that I sterilize (With whiskey or spirits) and use to draw samples form the barrel. Pull the bung, draw brew in pipette, hammer the bung home and move on.

With barrel aging we are slowly oxidizing the brew anyways. A bit of brew pulled into wood from the inside of the barrel, a bit of oxygen pulled into wood from the outside of the barrel and the magic happens.

I still take care not to slosh things around, and if the volume of the liquid in the barrels drops significantly (It happens..damn angels!) over the period of time I am aging I will purge with Co2 after sampling just to be safe.

The 5 gallon Balcones barrels are perfect to start with. Then move up to an 8 gallon or 10 gallon barrel. If you are in a homebrew club, find a true 55 Gallon barrel and have a big brew day where everyone brews the same beer to fill the barrel. It's a good time!

When discussing surface area variations, 5 gallons is the minimum you want, when you start getting into single gallon and smaller barrels, the surface area is too great and you get wood bombs. There is no way to get a balanced flavor from the barrel. Same thing goes with wood chips/cubes/spirals/et al.

Don't get me wrong you can still make a good beer with a small barrel and with wood chips/cubes/spirals/et al, but you cannot really get a true "barrel" flavor out of them, you just get wood and wood cellulose flavors.

You don't get the magic that happens with wood absorbing brew, interacting with oxygen, wood releasing brew and then absorbing more brew and more oxygen interaction in the wood happening. That's where the magic is.

One of the greatest differences I perceive with using larger barrels versus just chips/cubes/spirals is that you don't get that velvety mouthfeel. From my experience, the larger the barrel the better and more pronounced that velvety mouthfeel is. You just don't get it without the barrel and the magic that happens with a barrel.

 

I think the waxing of the 5 gallon barrels is more important if you're making sours, as the oxygen coming in through the smaller barrel has a big impact on the bacteria's acid production.

 

I have a RIS going in a 5 gallon barrel for a little over 6 months now. The barrel was a one use bourbon barrel that I poured 180 degree water into then dumped and added makers mark to sanitize the wood and dumped it before adding my stout. I tasted the stout about a month ago and the wood was not harsh nor was the spirit flavor. I will be taking it out shortly to keg and bottle but I did not have any problems with long term aging flavors.

 

Look at his fermentation method:

http://www.theyeastbay.com/sour-red-solera