hey there dudes!!! If I have a certified sealed woodford reserve barrel (53 gal) type that just got emptied last week and the staves are still soaked and tight. I have about 4 weeks tops to fill it until the staves start shrinking. I know the idea is the barrel has to be full. Here a few of my options 1. Fill the barrel with CO2 put 15 gallons in it and hope for the best making sure I rotate the barrel every 3 days or so for 6 months.... not my favorite option but I'm interested in your opinion on this. 2. Brew 15 gallons... then brew 15 gallons... then 15 gallons more until I get to 45 or 50 gallons. But have a week or so in between filling the barrel. 3. Attemp to commission/ rent a nano brewery's space to brew the beer and have 50 gallons ready to go. This is for a going away party in November.
Filling with just 15 gallons and hoping for the best sounds like a recipe for disaster. I would go with big batch/fill and then repeat as necessary. Or as suggested, find friends to brew with and make it a party.
Option 2 is what I was leaning toward the most too.., issue is going to be carbonating and bottling the beer..... any suggestions there?
If you don't have that beer in the barrel yet you may be pushing the limit time-wise for having this beer ready for a November party. If you give this beer at least a month in the bottle to carbonate (it could take longer if you are brewing a moderate to high ABV beer), you're not going to have very much time for the beer to pick up that great bourbon flavor and condition into the beer. To bottle 50 gallons of beer, if you don't happen to have 20 cases of empties hanging around, it's time to hit up your friends to contribute their empties, or beg from bars, or if your state has a deposit law, ask the beer stores to sell them to you for the nickle deposit price, etc. But you'd better get moving on both projects.
I'm almost crying laughing here! You have a beautiful barrel - much better than the crap I used to get as a professional back in the late 90's; and based on my experience with dismal, pathetic barrels it won't dry out and leak, so relax. On the other hand given that it's a Woodford Reserve you might want to get on that! If you can't find a way to contract at a larger brewery I think you can still do option 2, but my concern would be oxidation - by no means should you move it, just let it sit, the wood will not dry out and split. Another option is to brew several batches so that you've got a volume ready to go in all at once. In the mean time you could add Bourbon to the barrel and roll it around to keep it moist if you believe that's an issue; and don't think that professional brewers don't add Bourbon as well - it's illegal, but I've seen it done firsthand. Good luck!
