Barrel Aging with WLP653 Brettanomyces lambicus

You're planning to move the beer before the sacch yeast fermentation is finished, and you're also adding Brett, which will take the gravity down even further than the sacch yeast would. Unless you have done some pretty heavy duty math, I would make sure any excess pressure can escape.

Assuming there are no bugs in your barrel and that your sanitation is good, no, this shouldn't be a sour.

 

Air lock is a good idea.
I’ve only used 1 barrel so far (So I’m no expert in this area), but I prepped by dumping a bottle of bourbon in it. I left the bourbon in it for about a week and kept rotating it whenever I could. This served 2 purposes: the alcohol helped sanitize the barrel, and gave it more bourbon flavor.

 

How long are you planning on aging the beer? I've never barrel aged home-brew, but everything I've read and heard about aging wild ales in bourbon barrels is that it's a pain in the ass because bourbon barrels specifically allow greater oxygen ingress which inevitably leads to acetic acid development by the brett. I'd purge the barrel with CO2, and possibly even top off after awhile if you're letting it age long term. Definitely report back. I'd love to hear how this turns out.

 

From what i read almost everyone says don't use any chemicals, just really hot water or steam and roll the barrel with the same water everyday to check for leaks.

 

Yeah I'd agree with this. If the barrel has been freshly dumped you likely don't need to treat the barrel at all but I always like to put some hot water into it to be safe and to check for leaks/help re-hydrate the wood. If you are very confident in the barrel being leak free but still wanted to do some sanitizing just add Bourbon. Do be prepared for the barrel to leak a little bit. About half of the barrels I've used have had a little leakage on first use.

 

6 months is a very long time in such a small barrel. I’d check it after 2 months. I’ve never used Lambicus but most Brett’s don’t take that long to drop gravity and create their flavor profile. Your liquid to oak ratio and amount of O2 ingress is considerably higher than the normal size whiskey or wine barrels. You will see a significant increase in oxygen derived compounds (which is what you’re going for with the barrel anyway) in a much shorter time.

If that barrel you buy off Etsy isn’t freshly dumped you might have a rather difficult time even getting it to hold liquid. If it is freshly dumped you’re gonna get a bunch of spirit character on the first turn. Subsequent fills will result in less.

Bourbon/Whiskey barrels are generally the worst when it comes to leaking.

You can buy breathable bungs. I wouldn’t bother with the airlock personally. It’ll just go dry and you’ll be having to monitor it. The Brett fermentation will be so slow anyways, the breathable bung is all you need.

Personally on a home brew scale I don’t think barrels are really worth it. If you want oak character use some oak cubes. If you want added complexity from micro oxidation there are better, less expensive ways to achieve it.

 

Brewing is all about exploration! Like mentioned above for sure check the beer after a month or so (best if you drill a small hole for tasting and plug it with a stainless steel nail). Smaller barrels will be exposed to a lot more oak than larger barrels.

 

Am I reading correctly that this barrel has only held Bourbon?
If so, you may end up with more barrel character than wanted in a Saison, no matter how big it is, if you don't keep it's time in the barrel short. Maybe do a beer with a big body first (Imperial Stout, Wee Heavy, Barleywine, or Quad) that will carry the bourbon flavor a bit better, then have the big Saison on deck to fill the barrel immediately after packaging the initial beer.

 

As someone who's made excellent BBA beers with 5-gallon barrels that I don't think I could have replicated without them, I strongly disagree!

I also think there's a lot of inherited wisdom about barrels that doesn't match up to the reality.

 

Got a link to the etsy shop?

 

Wouldn't hurt.
So far as your idea about the beer gun, I've never used one, so someone else will have to chime in

 

you should definitely re-yeast! You’ll end up with much faster refermentation and it’s much less likely to get THP.

1-2g of champagne yeast. Add it to the keg with you priming sugar. Give it a couple hours and then bottle with the beer gun. This is how I bottle every mixed ferm beer.