Aging in Maple Syrup bourbon barrels

Never used the. But they sound fresh. I have helped others use barrels and all were used as they came. No rinsing. I'd run the beers right in and bung it.

Assuming these are chared oak barrels it's possible you will get some vanilla notes from them so depending on how much vanilla you want also depends on the number od beans.

I'd go easy on the extra vanilla, for my tastes.

 

I've not used barrels either to provide much advice, but I noticed that you said there is still some syrup in them. That's sugar, and that means you'll have some refermentation, so I recommend that you install an airlock in the bung once you fill the barrels.

 

I've used two maple bourbon barrels now so I think I can give you some help from my experiences.

1. It's best practice to fill the barrel with beer as soon as possible to keep the barrel form drying out. You don't have to sanitize (and don't bother adding bourbon if this is the 1st use post-maple syrup) but I'm a conservative guy so I prefer to add near boiling water to the boil which will sanitize and also ensure that you don't have any leaks in your barrel. Again you can likely skip this but that's my personal preference.

2. You don't need any syrup left in the barrel. My 1st one had a ton of syrup in it and my 2nd was totally cleaned out but both produced similar flavors as the maple syrup will ferment out.

3. I always add Bourbon for future uses to get some more bourbon flavors back in. How much you want to leave before adding beer depends on the flavor you want. For 1st use sanitizer I would probably drain all of it.

4. Store the barrel somewhere cool and make sure its sealed up the keep bugs out. It should stay wet for quite a few weeks after dumping.

5. I would not recommend adding vanilla beans. In my experience the resulting beer is going to be very sweet so adding vanilla is just going to make it worse. In the future I plan to add coffee beans to these beers to help balance the beer.

 

I think you would be wasting energy worrying about the syrup in the barrel. It will ferment out so the maple flavor you get will be from the maple that has already soaked into the oak. Adding bourbon would be fine but make sure to rotate the barrel and check for any leaks. If there are a lot of leaks you'll have to add water to the barrel to soak up and tighten the cracks.

Also sorry for the typos above! Always trying to write too fast when I'm at work. Should be "add near boiling water to the barrel".

One other note: I would not add bottling yeast when bottling. I had to uncap and recap both batches of beer to get the carbonation to the right level. I added a low amount of sugar so I believe the CBC bottling yeast must have fermented some of the more complex maple sugars that the original (and stressed out) yeast couldn't.

 

Maple syrup doesn't really contain any complex sugars. It's mostly sucrose, with some fructose and glucose.

Also, CBC-1 is marketed as a conditioning yeast because it doesn't eat maltotriose (a complex sugar, and the one that most regular ale/lager strains use partially but not fully).

 

Good to know! Probably didn't get all the maple syrup fermented out then so it may not have carbonated at all if I didn't add yeast (it was a 14% stout and I've had trouble bottle conditioning them previously). I'll have to consider pitching some more yeast next time I have a maple bourbon barrel.

 

Depends on size but you won't need much on 1st use on small barrels. Like I said mine we're both too sweet with not a whole lot of time in the barrel. 1st was an 8 gallon barrel that I bottled about 6 weeks and 2nd was 10 gallon that was the same. I'd say check it at 2 weeks and if ready go ahead and bottle it. Otherwise check each week until ready.

I bottled straight out of the barrel so no additional conditioning. In hindsight I should have considered brewing a new batch to blend so it was more balanced

 

This link below shows the different age times, surface areas, etc for the different size barrels.
A 10L barrel takes 173 days to get the same effect as a 53 gallon barrel does in 365 days.

https://www.homebrewing.org/assets/images/PDF/Barrel FAQs.pdf

 

Check morebeer.com. They have many sizes so measure yours first.

 

You can age it a long time but the downside will be increased oxidation and infection risk. Most places barrel age 3-6 months in the big barrels and so you're talking 1.5-3 months on a 1st use 5-6 gallon barrel comparatively. 2 weeks may be a little early so stick with your plan to check it at a month or 2 and go from there. If you plan to use it a 2nd time you'll have to leave it longer as the oak will take longer and longer to impart flavor each time its filled (and the maple will be fully gone)

 

Sounds like I'll just be re-hashing what others have said, but I just racked an RIS as soon as I could into the 10-gallon bourbon, then maple barrel after acquiring it. There was a little leakage from the barrel the first day or two, but nothing major. I placed it in a rubber bin that I had to swap out after two weeks. I left a little room for refermentation to occur. After two weeks or so, I topped it up with some more RIS and let age for about 4 months. Afterwards, kegged one with coffee, vanilla and the other left as was. Most folks in my hb club preferred the "plain" version more. Barrel is now on it's 5th fill and to others point, will add oak staves and bourbon to help support the flavor profile. I average about 6 months in the barrel, trying to top off the barrel each month. After each use, I give it a rinsing out from the garden hose, then an overnight soak with some bourbon and vodka (maybe 1 cup total) which I swirl around the barrel a few times. Then rack my new beer into the barrel.

I store my full barrel in my cool basement (stays about 61-64F most of the year) for the most part although have brought it up for storage in my upstairs closet for refermentation purposes as well when adding sugars.

 

I usually try to brew a larger batch of beer if I plan to top off so I can throw the additional beer into some 1 gallon fermenters and top off as needed. If you're aging long term you will want to top off the barrel or you will be introducing a lot of oxygen to the beer which is already getting a bunch from the barrel. You can brew some small batches to top off but try to keep it close to the base beer.

I only bottle at this point so no help on kegging but I believe small kegs are hard to get so you will probably have to bottle any additional amounts.

I just use a rubber stopper so that would be my recommendation. Can't image the difference will be worth the additional cost but maybe someone else with more experience can answer that one

 

My biggest concern with not topping up is acetobacter...i had one batch that I aged 6 months and I only topped up like once, and I definitely noted a little vinegary-ness to it...so I always try to top up now to minimize oxygen-beer interface. That to me is the ideology of distillers...not beer or wine producers regarding the angel's share...aceto won't grow in distilled products, so no worries about it for them.

My barrel came with a wooden bung, i put a piece of saran wrap on the underside of the bung and acts a tiny bit of a extra "gasket" for the wooden bung...at least in my mind....