Brewing an Imperial Stout - Trying Bourbon Barrel Aging

Discussion in 'Homebrewing' started by qvedder, Feb 22, 2013.

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  1. qvedder

    qvedder Initiate (0) Feb 17, 2013 Illinois

    Hello everyone,

    I am getting ready to brew an Imperial Stout from Northern Brewer. For this batch, I wanted to give barrel aging a try. I recently bought a new 2.5 gallon oak barrel, and I was planning on allowing some bourbon to sit in the barrel prior. This will be my first attempt at barrel aging a beer, and I want to get it right.
    So with that said, does anyone have any tips or tricks? Some quick questions that I have are:
    1. How much bourbon would I need to sit in the barrel before transfering the beer?
    2. How long should the burbon soak in the barrel?
    3. Given that the barrel is brand new, does it require any sanitation?

    Any other tips or tricks would be greatly appreciated. Thanks,
    Quint
     
    #1 qvedder, Feb 22, 2013
  2. inchrisin

    inchrisin Pooh-Bah (2,013) Sep 25, 2008 Indiana
    Pooh-Bah

    Keep in mind I've never barrel aged anything. There are additives that you can buy to clean your barrel. I wonder if it's as simple as filling it with starsan and letting it soak for a while. I'd save the bourbon for the rocks. You'll have a 7+% ABV beer going in there so I don't think it has as bad of a chance of getting infected. Make an extra 1/2 gal because your barrel might leak a touch and it might absorb some of the beer. You'll want to make sure you have a few extra bottles you can top off with.
     
    #2 inchrisin, Feb 23, 2013
  3. pmgerholdt

    pmgerholdt Initiate (0) Oct 14, 2010 New York

    a potassium metabisulfite soak/rinse is advisable. Fill the barrel with a solution and let it sit. This will keep the barrel hydrated and keep organisms at bay. if it sits longer than a couple of months, replace with fresh solution. When you are ready to get going, rinse well with boiled water repeatedly until the sulfer smell recedes and an oak smell is dominant. if you want to put bourbon in it now, a couple cups should suffice. Put the bung in and shake the barrel so the bourbon hits everywhere. Then stand it on one end for half a day. Then shake it again, and stand it on the other end for half a day. Or do this hourly if you want. Then shake it all over again, and keep doing this until you are ready to fill the barrel with beer. When you are, let the bourbon all drain into a quart jar and then rinse twice with boiled water to get bourbon out. Then in goes the beer, which has primaried and is ready for secondary. Taste the beer within a week and once a week thereafter and pull it out if or when the bourbon taste seems strong enough. Hopefully you will have a second beer ready to put directly into the barrel the same day you take the first one out. This second one will sit a bit longer and get more oak and less bourbon.

    The bourbon you pulled from the barrel ... you may find interesting uses for it. Make sure you use decent bourbon. No 10-Hi! Something like Rebel Yell or Knob Creek or Maker's Mark. Middle shelf stuff. You want it to taste good, after all.

    As for a 7+% ABV beer staving off infection in a wooden barrel ... don't count on it. I have a 52 gallon barrel of an obsidian stout clone in my basement which we had to sour because it started to turn. Ended up being a decent sour beer, very good, actually, and interesting too, but that's not what we were after.
     
    #3 pmgerholdt, Feb 23, 2013
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