Just ordered a 5 gallon barrel. Thinking about swelling & storing this with a 50/50 cut of bourbon & sterile water (about 1/2 gallon total). Figure this should create a ~22% abv holding solution that will help to maintain spirit character in the oak instead of just water, which would dilute spirit character of the barrel. Edit: Barrel was dumped 11/29/17, will be transferring beer into the barrel in early February. Thoughts?
Wrap it in shrink wrap. A storage solution will pull out a lot of the barrel and spirit character that you're looking for. You might lose a little beer before it seals, but it'll be better than putting a solution into it.
If you're filling it in early February, just add a fifth of your bourbon of choice and rotate the barrel a 1/4 turn every few days. Dump the bourbon and fill it with beer when you're ready. I have a couple barrels I've been doing this with for over a year now in between uses.
I don't think you'd see any negative effect from a 50/50 mix but I also don't see any benefit to doing it. A 750 of bourbon will be plenty of liquid to maintain humidity within the barrel for a month.
Good suggestions here. I would add that you could just pour hot liquor on the barrel’s exterior every few days and swell it from the outside. In my experiences fwiw, small barrels tend to be ‘tighter’ and leak much less frequently than 55ers.
Agreed. That said, I was gifted a 10 gallon rum barrel from a local brewery that leaked like a sieve. I just ended up using it as a primary fermenter for a couple saisons and sour beers before returning it to him so that he could give it to a friend that was going to make furniture from it or something.
