Alright BAers, I need your help. A buddy from our brew club has been in possession of a 14 gallon wine barrel that was not cared for after it's last use. Not sure how long ago that was. A home wine maker in Portland had it and gave it to him some time ago. He is giving it to me for sours. I will of course need to test it for leaks and get it to swell: I plan on using the cold water method from More Wine but need to know what to do from there. I want to put a holding solution into it so it will stay swelled, nothing new will grow, possibly kill off any undesirable bacterias/molds until I can get a brew in there (some time this Summer). What is the best method for cleaning then storing with liquid? Best solutions? Ratios for mixing? How long before I drain and refill with a new solution? Any other information yall can give? I have no issue with adding some sealants to the outside to help seal as well as keep a little more O2 out of it since it is still smaller scale than full size barrels. I also have no issue with losing any wine character from it as I like spirits more, and plan on adding spirits to the barrel or the beer at packaging. Thanks for the help.
I just got a barrel myself, and it's awaiting my BCBS clone to go into it within the next week. I would actually use HOT water, like.. just off a boil, and put it inside the barrel. Fill it up around 20% of the volume, and rotate the barrel around periodically. Empty after around 10-12 hours and replace with fresh hot water. Don't store it with hot water. While doing so, I'd put some hot water on the heads while you have it upright. Soak the outside head while soaking the inner head of the other side. Rotate and repeat. If it really leaks, then fill with the cold water and let it go, but change it out regularly, like.. daily. You could try the sulfer stick and bung set up, but I dunno about that. I think the best way is the hot water switch, and then if you need long term storage, try a citric sulfer solution. 1 tsp of citric acid 1.5 tsp of potassium metabisulfite Do that ratio, per gallon of water. Fill the barrel roughly half full, and rotate it around once in a while to keep it all wet inside and covered with the solution. There's a couple other things you can do to knock back some of the pedio and lacto and whatnot, but that might be desired, so I wouldn't worry about it. Once you have it swelled, sealed, and prepped, I'd flush with hot water, like boiling water, and then if you want some spirit flavor involved, I'd put some in the barrel, slosh it around and let it sit for a little while. I did this with a balcones barrel, I've got some Woodford reserve in the barrel. I'll let it sit for a while and soak in and help kill anything, even though the barrel was moist, but not wet from the balcones single malt whiskey.
@FATC1TY thanks. I will need to do long term storage as I will not have a brewday for the barrel until at least mid July.
Then try the citric solution.. You can store it like that for a while. Flush it with hot water about a week before you intend to use it, and if you want any spirit flavor, add that after the hot water and let it chill until you fill. Obviously dumping the spirit as well as you can before you rack to it.
I'd probably skip the holding solution as it will dilute the wine character your barrel has, even if it means you have to further neglect the barrel and start the swelling / reconditioning process closer to your brew date. Might not be good advice (and I certainly don't have much barrel experience) but it's what I'd do.
Yeah, I'd certainly skip any solution if you could, but the barrel was neglected and he doesn't care about any character from the barrel's previous wine being left. If I wanted anything from the barrels previous resident, I'd stick to hot water and then rack into it. Problem with leaving a barrel to dry out, is leaks obviously, but the issue with other things taking up residence that don't help with your beer. It's a crap shoot obviously.. Barrel aging it no different, IMO. You risk anything you put into the barrels, period.
Oh yeah, just re-read the OP and noticed that line towards the end about not trying to save the original wine character. Not that it helps much, but my brew club is about to fill a French Oak barrel donated to us by a gentleman who opted to send it off to a local winery for reconditioning before donating it (nice guy!). While I don't know what they used (citric acid / dechlorinated water is likely though) I know they professionally cleaned it, then swelled it, tightened the rings, are leaving water in it for a few days, then they plan on draining it, professionally drying it to prevent fungus/mold/bacteria growth, and returning it to the host with the instructions to either fill it with beer or warm water (to hold) within 3-4 days time from it being returned.
Thanks guys. What I can see inside looks fairly clean, a little mold. Appears to have been rinsed well after last use. But I also noticed that there is very little if any char in there. Anyone have ideas on how to give a better char inside a built barrel? I have a propane torch but think that would have to concentrated of a flame in a single area.
Wine barrels are toasted, not charred. For cleaning it, you could do a soak with soda ash or a product like Barolkleen. Then there are procedures with sodium meta bisulfide and citric acid. Sulfur sticks are also used. If the barrel has Brett, you can't get rid of it. Use it for wild beers.
@hopfenunmaltz I plan on doing sours only in the barrel. Want to do a single 14 gallon batch, then pull 4-5 gallons in 6-12 months, replace with fresh wort, and continue. Use it as a sour solera. @koopa & @FATC1TY I like the idea of just leaving it sit as is then giving a super hot water wash and re-swell, maybe a bit of the citric-acid wash for a few days before using. It looks fairly clean inside of there.
I didn't see any note of that above, and the comment on char made me think you wanted to do a bourbon barrel sort of thing. Most sours/wilds are done in wine barrels. I am sure some are done in Bourbon barrels, but the traditional ones are wine barrels. The club has several barrel programs going. Those are filled with fermented beer, and that has plenty for the Brett and bacteria to eat. Wort will give you a very vigorous fermentation, so I hope you have a good floor drain (based on visits to Cantillon).
Thanks for the info on the wort and floor drains, I'll keep that in mind. I have done quite a few sours in carboys now and I really am not a huge fan of the "no real oak character" of the traditional wilds that they go for. I think that Bourbon and Rum and bigger oak actually play well with darker sours like a Flanders Red. Unfortunately I don't have any leads on a free 15 gallon Whiskey or Rum barrel. Thanks for the info. BTW the reference to use with sours is in the 3rd line of the original post, easy to miss though.
Thanks, totally missed that. Rodenback disassembles their Foudres after the 3 year aging, and shaves 1/32 or so off of the inside to take off beerstone. I have no recollection of any talk of toast or char when those are apart. There is a small surface to volume ratio in those big boys, so you might get more oak out of a small wine barrel.
