Bourbon Barrel Advice

I have not used a barrel, but from what I have read, and looking again at Mad Fermentationist's blog, looks like he did about 3 weeks in a 5 gallon batch. You may want to squeeze in a brew day tomorrow.

 

Buy three gallons of bourbon, white whisky or vodka and place in barrel if you can't brew in time. It will prevent the barrel from drying out and help against spoilage (may not prevent but won't hurt). Added bonus of aging white whiskey or vodka is that you'll potentially get to drink a bourbon esque liquor when you empty the barrel.

 

Given the small volume of this barrel, I like the idea of keeping it topped up and avoiding letting it sit dry. A smaller piece of wood will dry out more quickly.

 

You can keep on tasting it, but I think commercial brewers allow a beer to spend at least several months in the barrel, so waiting until you can brew again may even be too soon to empty/refill it.

 

They (Pros) also use 50-55 gallon barrels. Barrels this small, can be done in as short as a week or two (Initial tannic phase followed by integration), so its better to have beer ready soon rather than later if not filling barrel with water or spirits to keep it hydrated.

 

I've never used a barrel so small, but in our Buffalo Trace barrels at work, we typically begin to taste bourbon in the beer after 3 weeks and at 6 weeks it seems to hit its peak. Of course, each individual barrel is different and temperature will play a role as well. This is also assuming that it is the first time the barrel has been filled after having whiskey in it. We use our's three times, but each use takes longer to get bourbon flavor. After three uses, we don't get much bourbon flavor anymore, so we pick out a few barrels, age beer in them, and we consider them oak aged, not bourbon barrel aged.

 

Also, in some barrels, we have noticed a significant bourbon flavor in as little as three days. In a few cases, it has even been overwhelming after three days. We have experienced this in barrels that have the same exact markings, and they've sat at the same temperatures as other barrels which might take longer. This seems to be related to the amount of whiskey still being in the barrel at the time of arrival at the brewery. It seems like the distilleries are not always leaving the same amount of whiskey behind in each barrel.

 

I'd be careful not to overoak. Get that thing out of the barrel in a couple/few weeks. While it's ideal to drain and refill immediately, you can fill with a holdin solution (water and potassium metabisulfate). That (hopefully) will keep the beer "clean".

 

Try not to worry too much about having your barrel empty. I'm on my fourth batch with a 5 gallon barrel from Balcones and it has sat empty for a few weeks at a time before. In between batches I'll rinse out the barrel real good, then run some 180* water through it. Add some whisky too it and shake it around every day or so.

 

I have a handle of whiskey I just dump in the barrel between brews (I have some 5 gallon balcones barrels). I rotate the barrel and occasionally sit it on either end to keep it wet/sanitized/conditioned. The down side is that having some head space means you will loose more. It you dont open it a lot it only looses 25ml or so to the oak and air. I mostly take comfort in the whiskey killing the bacteria that could get in...

 

I have used barrels of all different sizes from 5 to 60 and each has spent some time empty. Like said above, get a handle of the cheapest vodka or bourbon you can find and dump it in. Move it around every once in a while and you are good to go. I wouldn't rinse with water as that just takes more of the bourbon/oak flavor out and will likely add contaminants you don't want.

On the time in the barrel, I usually leave my 5 for 1-2 months and my 15 for about 3 months.

 

Before I sour'd my barrels I rinsed they with 180 to 200* water and then let them sit overnight to cool before putting anything in. I think that may have stripped some nice things out but it also got rid of the caked trub. After I sour'd I just dumped the next thing in there, maybe a light rinse with boiled and cooled water...